Parker sees us and hears us, but does she get it?

Philly’s top brass almost had it last week. Almost …

Having spent a few decades now covering all manner of gun violence, including the past 13 or so years in Philadelphia, I’ve learned that this much is true: Violence is never isolated.

And yet, even as city officials deserve some credit for acknowledging both the progress they’ve made in addressing gun violence and the persistence of it, on two different occasions during a 30-minute news conference early last week, leaders referred to a rush-hour shooting on Dec. 13 at City Hall’s Dilworth Park that left three people injured as an “isolated” incident.

It wasn’t “the norm,” they said, and four times, they insisted the shooting “didn’t define us.”

This was “the best year” we’ve had in more than a decade, with killings down 37% compared with this point in 2023.

Never mind that the shooting at the park was one of 11 different shooting incidents that weekend, in which two dozen people were injured, four of them fatally.

The news conference actually hit a lot of the right notes, with speakers seemingly working off the same two-part script:

Remind the public — often — that Philadelphia has seen a sharp decrease in shootings and homicides this year.

But also that there is still a lot of work to be done before anyone does a victory lap.

“Yes, you do know what the stats are,” said Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. “They affirm that even despite this weekend’s gun violence, we are making some progress. But it’s not enough. The numbers don’t mean a damn thing.”

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. There is no beating Parker, our consoler-in-chief, on a mic, and she seems to have rubbed off on other public officials who’ve majorly flubbed in the past.

That includes District Attorney Larry Krasner, who clearly learned his lesson after he got slammed nearly three years to the day in December 2021 for his SMH-worthy comments that the city had no crime crisis. He later walked his statement back, calling his words inarticulate and vowing to speak more carefully.

And the thing is, he and other public officials mostly did just that — they spoke with care and sensitivity for the moment. (Extra points to Krasner for his español.)

So, you might be wondering, why their comments still left me feeling a little … rage-y?

For starters, let’s look at the “isolated“ myth. Acts of violence are connected to broader social, economic, and systemic issues. And they don’t just impact the immediate victims, but the surrounding community. There is always — always — a ripple effect beyond the initial incident. Neither Center City nor Dilworth Park exists in a bubble, no matter how much the city’s commercial honchos might wish it did.

And then there was Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel’s comment: “Where you stand now is one of the safest areas in the city of Philadelphia. We will bolster our resources here, as well as across the city, to address the episode of violence that we saw over the weekend, but I commit to you that is not the norm.”

Um …

Look, I’m not picking on Bethel. He is probably one of the more thoughtful public officials in the city. He usually seems to get it. But commissioner, you should know better than most that no place in Philadelphia, or Anywhere, USA, for that matter, can ever be “one of the safest” if there are other places that remain unsafe.

Violence travels. And we don’t have episodes of violence in Philadelphia. We have an epidemic of violence that affects Philadelphians every day. Still.

And it sounds naive for anyone to suggest that this shooting, or any shooting, is not the norm at this point in our collective American experience. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States.

Every day, upwards of 200 people on average are wounded by guns, and more than 110 are killed in America, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. Places we once considered safe from gun violence — movie theaters, concerts, churches, schools, church schools, grocery stores, parks — are no more.

Speaking of people who should know better, Parker knows enough to lead with people-first talking points: “One Philly, a United Philly,” and all that.

“I need you to know that I hear you,” Parker said to Philadelphians during a news conference in March in the wake of a mass shooting of eight Northeast High School students at a SEPTA bus stop.

“I see you. I listened to you,” Parker said to the people of Chinatown in a video in September to announce that — despite much opposition from that community — she had endorsed the Sixers’ plans to build a new arena in Center City.

But does she really listen? Is she really seeing us?

Ask those opposed to the Sixers arena how heard or seen they felt when they were involuntarily cast as extras in a docudrama where their concerns about displacement ended up on the cutting-room floor.

Ask them how heard or seen they felt after being handcuffed and removed from City Council chambers on Thursday so that Parker and other electeds could hold a congratulatory news conference after they approved the project.

(As it so happens, that news conference occurred less than 24 hours after a 15-year-old girl was fatally shot in North Philadelphia, and at around the same time a man and a woman were shot and killed on Thursday in the same neighborhood. More “isolated” incidents, I guess.)

On Friday, during a lengthy “State of the City” speech full of shout-outs and swagger — “We’re proud of where we are as Year One draws to a close” — Parker reflected on her time in office. She remained unmoved and unapologetic about the controversial arena, saying that she shouldn’t be mayor if she only made decisions that were applauded.

All Philadelphians would benefit from the project, she insisted. The city would ensure Chinatown “will not only survive but thrive.”

Like Parker, I guess we’ll all see — and hear — about that.