by Alex Lloyd Gross
Two males have been arrested and face very serious charges after they tried to fight people taking their photo at recent protests. The first incident happened on June 1 2020. It was in the area of the 26th Police District that a goup of people gathered to protect their neighborhood. They did not want looters and arsonists coming in and they also wanted to support police.
Some of those people had guns. Some had bats and other tools. A few of those people acted in a criminal manner, threatening and provoking unarmed protesters who were in their neighborhood. This is a news event. It is in public. Anyone can film this. it is on a public street. That is the law. Police said that George Graf who lives in the area, spotted a journalist working for WHYY. Graf did not want the journalist in his area and followed him.
Graf is alleged to have beaten the journalist after the Journalist moved away from him, to diffuse the situation. Multiple complaints were filed against police and against several people involved in this altercation. Graf was arrested June 25 and charged Aggravated Assault, Criminal Conspiracy to Engage Aggravated Assault, Criminal Conspiracy to Engage in Simple Assault, (2) Counts of Simple Assault and (2) Counts of Recklessly Endangering Another Person. There will be more arrests involved in this incident.
On June 23, 2020 there was another protest at Marconi Plaza. It was there and a black photographer who was taking photos was assaulted by John Mooney. It was Mooney, 58, who kept referring to him on tape as “Boy”,