Defund the Police Protest Was Mostly Peaceful
by Alex Lloyd Gross
There were two protests in Philadelphia today, June 23, 2020. They both coincided about the same time in the afternoon and kept police busy. The first one was at the Municipal Service Building, where over 20 people were arrested and taken to Major Crimes for processing. They wanted the police disbanded and they took over the Municipal Service Building. They got arrested instead.
The second was a protest march from Broad and Snyder in South Philadelphia. There, about 700 protesters , some of whom wore red in support of socialism marched to city hall. Their agenda was to defund the Philadelphia Police. It started at 3:00 PM .Shortly before then, protesters showed up then took to Broad Street. It was there that they marched to city hall.
Again, we have a group that marches together, with different factions. There were a few of the protesters on bicycles that wanted to obstruct media members. This is stupid. Instead of reporting on the message they want to convey, the story becomes about how uneducated some of the people associated with the protest are. There is no such thing as privacy on a public street. Especially those that willingly march in a protest. Still, two people with their own agenda tried to obstruct working journalists from doing their jobs. Not a smart move.
As the march got underway, familiar chants of F the police were sang, almost as a cadence. In spite of that Philadelphia Police rolled behind them, closed off streets to make certain that no motorist drove into the protest and caused injury. As that went on, the “No justice No Peace, F The police was chanted all the way to city hall.. Once there, people spoke a out about bad cops,. Soon, the protesters went different ways. Some went to the Art Museum. Others went back down Broad Street, to Marconi Plaza. In past protests at Marconi Plaza, about 15 protesters showed up and about 75 neighbors also showed up to insure the Columbus Statue was not torn down. There had to be over 175 police. For this march there was less than 150 officers.
About 800 people were in the march at it’s zenith. People who live in south Philadelphia do not agree with their message. They did not show up and there were no fights. One male was arrested at Marconi Plaza for instigating the protesters.
An interesting takeaway that was noticed. At concerts and sporting events, a small group of bootleg t shirt sellers are out trying to sell their wares. That same group was marching with their wares, pulling a load of Black Lives Matters shirts in wagons, with the march. They were selling them for $15.00 each. However, they would take $10.00.