The long, hot summer is over.
At least unofficially. With Labor Day now behind us, most consider the summer season over, even though the calendar informs us the season technically has several weeks to go.
One thing has not cooled off.
The streets of Chester continue to seethe.
Around midnight Saturday night, that familiar sound was once again heard on the city streets: gunfire.
Shots rang out on 2700 block of Kane Street. A 27-year-old man and his 19-year-old nephew were shot and killed.
They likely will be ruled the city’s 17th and 18th homicides of 2010.
Across the county there had been 25 homicides recorded before the latest weekend violence.
Earlier this summer things got so bad that Mayor Wendell Butler enacted a state of emergency, with a strict curfew and ban on public gatherings in five areas of the city. It seemed to work. Council extended it for a month. When it expired, guess what happened? The gun violence started right up again. Butler said he is loathe to reinstitute the crackdown out of concern for trampling on the rights of the city's law-abiding citizens.
Ironically, state Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, D-159, has scheduled a press conference in Chester for Monday morning.
He announced a citywide campaign to get school-age children to sign a gun safety pledge.
It’s something the city desperately needs.
Before another life is lost.
At least unofficially. With Labor Day now behind us, most consider the summer season over, even though the calendar informs us the season technically has several weeks to go.
One thing has not cooled off.
The streets of Chester continue to seethe.
Around midnight Saturday night, that familiar sound was once again heard on the city streets: gunfire.
Shots rang out on 2700 block of Kane Street. A 27-year-old man and his 19-year-old nephew were shot and killed.
They likely will be ruled the city’s 17th and 18th homicides of 2010.
Across the county there had been 25 homicides recorded before the latest weekend violence.
Earlier this summer things got so bad that Mayor Wendell Butler enacted a state of emergency, with a strict curfew and ban on public gatherings in five areas of the city. It seemed to work. Council extended it for a month. When it expired, guess what happened? The gun violence started right up again. Butler said he is loathe to reinstitute the crackdown out of concern for trampling on the rights of the city's law-abiding citizens.
Ironically, state Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, D-159, has scheduled a press conference in Chester for Monday morning.
He announced a citywide campaign to get school-age children to sign a gun safety pledge.
It’s something the city desperately needs.
Before another life is lost.
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