As he was sworn in for a second term on Monday, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter vowed to get tough on crime, saying most residents do not feel safe in their own homes. He said that a lack of high-quality public education is also holding the city back and tearing at the fabric of the community, the Associated Press reports.

Addressing those two issues was not some moral or social crusade, but an economic imperative, the mayor said, while vowing not to leave anyone behind in his efforts to transform the city.

"There are too many Philadelphians who don't feel safe in their own neighborhoods, whose children are stuck in low-performing schools, who are struggling to find work, and some who have given up even looking for a job," Nutter said.

Criminal justice spending accounts for one-third of the city's budget, money that is badly needed in other areas, the mayor said. He also noted that black males made up almost three-quarters of the victims and nearly 80 percent of the perpetrators in the city's 300-plus shooting deaths last year, calling it "a local and national epidemic that is insufficiently discussed, let alone taken on."

The transition to the new year was marked by deadly crime, with six people killed between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, most by gun violence that also injured others and kept police and emergency crews scrambling across the city throughout the night ...

It is a staggering fact that black males made up almost three-quarters of the victims and nearly 80 percent of the perpetrators in the city's more than 300 shooting deaths last year. It is a clarion call not only for elected officials but also for residents to develop solutions to this deeply entrenched problem.

Read more at the Beaver County Times.

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