Dear Mayor Kenney, You Are A Murderer
By: Jawn Oliver
Tags: Homelessness, Eviction, Philadelphia, Housing Crisis, Mayor Jim Kenney

I am letting you know that folks feel very insecure by your threats. We are all crisis fatigued from a pandemic, from poverty, and from a long one way battle against brutality. We are in the eves that this policy no longer becomes brutality, and starts to become social murder. We have given you opportunity time and time again to prove that your economic policies are not social murder.

“When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.” Said Friedrich Engels.

Economic policies that we know result in death make you red handed in committing social murder. There are 40,000 plots that can be collected through eminent domain to build public housing.

Joshua Harris, the owner of the Philadelphia 76ers is asking the city for $2 Billion for a new arena project in Penn’s Landing. I am now asking the city for $2 billion to build 20,000 units for homeless residents.

I believe at this moment, we know the city has choice to make. Commit social murder, or start problem solving a solution that will provide permanent housing to those who are homeless. Because allowing a solvable problem to be left unaddressed and lead to death is murder.

I also believe that forcefully evicting folks by physical assault sanctioned by the government is an inspiration for violent reactionaries to take direct actions on the city government. If the city does not stop its inappropriate actions, it will not result in a good ending. The government should not be acting in a way to create mass homelessness in America. This is Philadelphia’s and every city’s warning that a decentralized but organized action will be incited if they do not stop killing the impoverished through the hardships of homelessness, and they carry out their brutality in the form of physical assaults. Because we have seen Kenosha, Portland, LA, Chicago start to mobilize in response to abuse. Philadelphians will mobilize too if we are forced to.

In his 1964 speech “Communication and Reality,” Malcolm X said: “I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.”

For shelterless folks about to be evicted from their camp and those about to lose their homes, potentially using violence would be intelligent. It would be justified to prevent invading forces of a state from removing the masses of impoverished from their homes and camps. We are done with economic fascism in Philadelphia and America. Change your tune now Mayor. The poor have had enough violence and brutality thrown against them by your forces. You need to stop this now because you response is completely immoral and murderous! If you carry this action out, you’ll be remember’d by a nick name like Killer Kenney or Jailer Jim. Your career would be over. The last thing you want to do is inspire folks to forcefully evict you as this crisis progresses. So stop this now before this mess gets too big to clean up. Cancel rent, cancel the evictions, and start housing folks in a problem solving way. Folks are literally dying right now because of you. According articles released by the Inquirer, over 200 people die in our city annually because of homelessness. Policies that continue homelessness is social murder.