Not everyone behaved during the Eagles parade.
by Alex Lloyd Gross
It’s been just over 24 hours since the Eagles Super Bowl Parade ended. Cops reported two arrests for assault and several people injured from doing something they should not have been doing. One young lady was critically injured when she fell from a trash truck along the parkway. She was in and out of consciousness and her condition deteriorated rapidly. It took an extended time for medics to work their way through the crowd to get to her. Three people reportedly were stabbed.
As spots along the parade route got jammed with people, some got frustrated at their lack of sight lines, and tried to climb on something nearby. Trash trucks were an easy item to climb and multiple people can fit on one. Light poles were not greased and multiple people fell from them and were injured when they tried to climb them. When you get 1,000,000 people together, there will be problems. They were few when taken in comparison to the crowd but to those few that had them, they were major. When someone falls from a light, 25 feet up, they get hurt. They now have two serious problems if they do not have health insurance. The first is their pain and injury and the second problem is getting a doctor to treat them .
Several vehicles, including a trash truck were damaged. One news van sustained damage and the roofs were buckled on several unmarked police cars. A few private vehicles were damaged outside of the parade route as well. Police were not enforcing any open carry laws and people started drinking well before 8:00 AM. The area around the south side of city hall was littered with beer cans. Mayor Kenney did not think people would be drinking that early. Drinking any beverage in cold weather makes people have to go to the bathroom , with lines around portable toilets approaching a 30 minute wait, some people relieved themselves wherever they could. There were only 850 portable toilets.
Within 24 hours, Jason Kelce emerged as the most favorite athlete in recent Philly history. He dressed like a green genie, walked to the crowd, at the start of the parade and then serenaded the crowd with the new Eagles song dedicated to the fans. “No one likes us, No one likes us, we don’t care”, with some of the lyrics containing a profanity that rhymes with “duck”. He should sell t shirts with his head emblazoned with his genie outfit and the words to that song, before some bootlegger beats him to the punch.
In spite of a few that were stupid, the parade brought out the best of the city. Everyone, black, white, Asian, straight, gay, bi or whatever, all were green. All showed up to support the team that they prayed would win. It was our time. This was our team. A Super Bowl win was going to happen for Philadelphia and it did on February 4, 2018.