Gang wars are breaking out in Harrisburg and a retail theft ring in rural Pennsylvania terrorized nine counties.
All the hallmarks of a turf war between rival gangs are visible. Graffiti covers the walls of abandoned buildings, fights with weapons break out at funerals, and neighbors are terrorized as two gangs battle each other.
This isn’t one of Pennsylvania’s major metro areas of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This is in Harrisburg, where the Allison Hill and Southside gangs are going to war. When Kendrell Hall, a 22-year-old gang member, was killed in June, rival gang members taunted his death on social media, leading to the ambush killing of Hall’s fellow gang member outside a concert venue a month later.
Videos of random acts of violence and increasingly reckless gang behavior are being posted online by gang members, in an attempt to increase what local police are calling “clicks for clout.”
Crime across the state, particularly organized retail theft, is getting a serious look by the Pennsylvania Attorney General, which received $2.7 million in the latest state budget to prosecute coordinated theft. The Attorney General’s office will be convening a meeting with stakeholders on how to address this epidemic later this month.
The increase in crime is so bad that the PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency is providing $80 million in grants for police departments across the commonwealth to “enhance our law enforcement capabilities and provide critical support to victims of crime.” The goal is to improve crime tracking, as it has been proven difficult for the state to “accurately capture statewide and jurisdiction-specific crime trends.”
Last month, five suspects, ages 19 or 20, were arrested and charged with crimes related to a nine-county organized theft spree from a number of supermarket chains. Far from dangerous Philadelphia neighborhoods like Kensington, the suspects’ crimes occurred in rural counties Northumberland, Union, York, and Cumberland, among others.
During last week’s presidential debate, moderators attempted to fact check former President Donald Trump for his allegation that crime is on the rise across the country. But data released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows violent crime in 2022 is “significantly higher” than 2020, Trump’s last year in office.
At an August rally in Wilkes-Barre, Trump pledged to “support our great police” and end the wave of “migrant crime” across the country.
When analyzing crime data and per capita crime rates, cities like Darby, Chester, McKees Rocks, and Reading are included in the top 10 most dangerous cities in Pennsylvania alongside Philadelphia.
In an effort to combat this rise in violent crime, Gov. Josh Shapiro has been forced to reestablish the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The new bureaucracy will collaborate with a variety of state agencies and non-profits to “increase awareness of firearm safety” and create Gun Violence Data Dashboard.
