Editorial: Mayor's spokesperson does disservice by denying violence, injuries

Disregarding people’s concerns doesn’t make them go away.

Over the weekend, the city of Pittsburgh had several violent altercations, including three shootings.

The most prominent happened late Sunday in East Liberty. ShotSpotter recorded 14 rounds fired. Five people were shot.

Two adult males were transported by ambulance in critical/serious condition, according to Pittsburgh Public Safety. They were stable by Monday afternoon. A 17-year-old girl was transported in stable condition. Two more male gunshot victims, aged 15 and 18, went to the hospital themselves. Ten more people were reported as injured and treated at the scene. Some were grazed by bullets. Others had injuries from falling.

The incident meets the definition of a mass shooting. The Gun Violence Archive, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit founded to accumulate data on shootings, defines a mass event as one with at least four injuries. Check.

But Mayor Ed Gainey’s spokeswoman downplayed the East Liberty shooting and the other incidents over the weekend.

No one was killed, Olga George said. No one was “overly injured.”

What exactly is the definition of “overly injured”? Is it just not dying? Two people went to the hospital in critical or serious condition. Is “critical” not injured enough for the mayor’s office?

“(This) is not a city bordering on violence. I want to make that clear,” George said.

One could argue that’s true. But that’s hardly what she was trying to say.

The bullets were fired. The violence happened. The border was crossed.

It is the job of political spokespeople to maintain calm in the face of negative events. It’s important to have a measured response when giving people information they need in an emergency. But it’s also critical to be believable.

Denying violence when 15 people were hurt in a single event — with two more shootings over the same weekend — makes it hard to invest trust in the office.

And to say no one was “overly injured” is a callous disregard of the pain and fear experienced by the people at any of the three shootings. It dismisses it as unworthy of notice. It shrugs and says there is nothing to see here.

Let’s be clear: Pittsburgh is not a hive of crime and savagery. It isn’t Jack the Ripper’s London, with murder around every corner.

But as with many cities, there are problems with violence — particularly gun violence — that must be acknowledged to be addressed.

The most responsible thing the city can do is offer honest sympathy when people are affected by violence instead of saying it wasn’t a big deal.