Horrific murder rate this year is looking more and more likely.

Despite the overwhelmingly positive response to the recent Call to Oneness March, violence has continued at an unacceptable rate.

The latest P-D article tells of four slayings in one night in the city; one in Academy, one in Kingsway West, and two in Hyde Park.

I checked the Police Department's website for the most up to date crime stats. There were 63 murders between January and May 2008--only five months. We are on pace to top 150 homicides in one year. That's an unbelievably high murder rate of 50 per 100,000.

Our cities and our nation need leaders who will not shy away from bold, progressive policies that will reduce crime and reinvest in education so that our cities can be stabilized. This is a moral issue, whether or not the victims of violence we witness nearly every day are involved in gangs, are drug addicts, or any other factor that people typically use to diminish the weight of a particular crime.

We need unqualified action.