Local activist wants Philadelphia to bring in National Guard to help with gun violence crisis
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's a violent end to a violent summer in Philadelphia. Since Friday, at least 29 people have been shot. Ten people died from their injuries.
Jamal Johnson left Philadelphia on Aug. 17, walking 140 miles by day and staying in hotels at night. The Marine veteran told CBS3 his mission is to get boots on the ground to help stabilize the hardest hit neighborhoods by calling in the National Guard.
"I think it's appalling," Johnson said.
For the sixth year in a row, Johnson, the Stop Killing Us gun violence activist, marched from Philadelphia to the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington D.C. and made a plea for help.
"We can't just sit back and be apathetic and think that we are going to solve this problem," Johnson said.
Since Friday, at least 29 people have been shot, with 10 dying from their injuries, including a sextuple shooting near 7th and Russell Streets in North Philadelphia that killed two people and injured four others. Two of the victims remain in critical condition.
"We can't continue to try to fix things while we're bleeding out," Johnson said.
In the hours after that shooting, Philadelphia police say they will have a police presence on the corner of 7th and Russell Streets 24/7 for the foreseeable future, something Johnson said is needed more.
Given police staffing shortages, he said the National Guard is our only immediate option.
"Why is 7th and Russell any different than the rest of Philadelphia? Every time something happens, what do we do? We put a police presence there don't we? Then OK, we need a presence in our communities throughout Philadelphia and the only force that can do that is the police force or an outside force and we don't have enough policemen to do that for the whole area, so it's time to bring in an outside force," Johnson said.
While Johnson acknowledges this is only a short-term solution, he also believes it's necessary.
"Unless our community is doing it, someone else has to do it, so if you're against the guard doing it, then come on out and start doing it. Because someone has got to start paying attention to our communities on the ground," Johnson said.
CBS3 reached out to Mayor Jim Kenney's office for a comment about why or why not he has considered the National Guard given the current homicide numbers.
The Mayor has yet to respond.
In the past, Mayor Kenney has said the guard is not trained to fight city crime.