Dead Bodies Everywhere Or Just Another Day in the Neighborhood

Violence has always been a part of life in Syracuse. It has gotten better and worse depending on the year and more importantly the weather.

Spring has finally arrived in the Salt City and that means one thing more shootings. There are plenty of shooting calls that go out all winter and occasionally the hit someone – but normally during the cold winter months temperatures drop down so low even the gangbangers end up staying inside. You can’t successfully pull of a drive by shooting when it’s to damn cold to roll down the windows. So temperatures are back up and that means so is the body count.

It is (technically) Saturday morning (1:30ish). In the last week there have been two murders – two injuries – and more shots fired calls then you can shake the crime stick at. The sad part is they aren’t really even related, despite how similar they seem. In the major gang days, with Boot Camp the Bricks and the like gangs shot each other to death. Shootings came in pairs. One gang attacks someone who was dealing in their territory – then the other retaliates.

This week we have similar sounding murders but they are most likely worlds apart. One was found on early hours of Sunday the other by garbage men Wednesday morning. Both men were shot to death and died in their cars. They were even found reasonably close to each other. The difference is found when we look at the two victims life style. The first was found in a parking lot after getting shot after a fight at Syracuse’s local biker bar the ‘Cuse Road Dawg. The other was a father of two, mixed up with drugs, who lived in a halfway house and had a lengthy criminal record. Two people two very different lives both meet the same unfortunate end.

Then Thursday on the north side of the city – a man walks in to a connivance store without id to try to buy beer. The clerk does the right thing and says no – so the kid says he’ll be back with his posse. He shows up a few hours later with a gun. He walks in fires three shots - grazing the clerk in the arm – and then walking off. The kids showed up just with an entire clip of friends, but I guess that really is all you need to make your point.

Then you have your average run of the mill shots fired. Just kids driving around hanging out and firing off their guns. They aren’t shooting at anything or anyone in particular. Just being stupid, but as the weather gets warmer and there are more people and kids out – it’s going to eventually be a little kid on the receiving end of one of those bullets.

When I first started one of the first major continuing stories was about a 7 year old kid who got shot by some idiot just driving by – luckily the kid survived – but next time we may not be so lucky. No matter who ends up getting shot – gang member, bystander, drug dealer, there will most likely be someone mourning them – someone who loves them. Be it a mother, a babies momma, an aunt, a grandmother, some family, even a fellow gang member pouring out a forty on the street, who will tell the media – that just before they were killed they started turning their life around.