Source: Chicago Tribune / Getty
In Philadelphia, where 307 homicides were reported last year, arrests were made in just 55 percent of slayings from 2007 through 2016, and in the city and nationwide during that decade, more homicides went unsolved when the victim was black, a study has found.
According to the data, published in the Washington Post this week, the nation’s 55 largest cities reported 54,990 homicides during that decade, half of which resulted in no arrests. When the victim was white, arrests were made in 63 percent of those slayings, compared with 47 percent when the victim was black, the study reported. Philadelphia reported 3,037 homicides and the vast majority of victims — 2,359 — were African American. Among the other victims, 373 were Hispanic, 256 white, and 48 Asian.
David Fisher, a retired Philadelphia police detective, attributed the lower arrest rate for black victims to “the silence of the community.”
“Everybody talks about the blue code of silence, but there’s a community code of silence, too,” he said. “It works both ways.”
Click here to read more
