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For Immediate
Release
7/27/06
CONTACT:
PA
Senate Republican Communications
(717) 787-6725
Senate Judiciary Committee Sets Violence
Hearing in Philadelphia
HARRISBURG -- A
public hearing on urban violence will be conducted by the Senate Judiciary
Committee on Wednesday, August 2, 2006, in City Council Chambers of Philadelphia
City Hall, beginning at 9 a.m., according to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf.
Witnesses to date include Philadelphia
Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson; Lawrence W. Sherman, Director of
the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerry Lee Center of Criminology; Bilal
Qayyum; Co-Chair, Men United for a Better Philadelphia; Shelly Yanoff,
Executive Director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth;
Diane Edbril, Executive Director of CeaseFirePA; Robert A. Ricker,
Executive Director of American Hunters and Shooters Association; John
Towarnicki, President, Philadelphia Federation of Sportsmen’s Club; Jon
S. Mirowitz, Esq., representing the United Sportsmen of Pennsylvania and
the Pennsylvania State Fish and Game Protective Association; Greg
Isabella, Operations Manager and Vice President, Firing Line Inc.; and
Shirley Boggs, Mothers United in Tragedy.
Witnesses will testify on the issue of urban
violence and legislation proposing the limitation of gun purchases in
Philadelphia. The hearing was prompted by concerns about the burgeoning
homicide rate in Philadelphia and other urban areas. With about 220
murders in Philadelphia so far this year, according to news reports, the
city is on track to outpace its 380 homicides in 2005.
Sen. Greenleaf said that the Senate
Judiciary Committee will continue with public hearings on urban violence
in the cities of Pittsburgh, Altoona, and Harrisburg this summer and
early fall.
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