1,000 Philly Cops On The Street To Watch 100 Protesters

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The Philadelphia Police Department, which was woefully undermanned for last year's George Floyd riots, was out in force yesterday as the nation awaited the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who's accused of murdering Floyd.

The Philadelphia Police Department canceled all days off yesterday for all personnel as the city had more than 1,000 officers out on the street working 12-hour shifts. 

In West Philadelphia, more than 200 bicycle cops were on patrol while the city shut down about a mile of 52nd Street, which was the subject of widespread looting last year, with barricades from Parkside Avenue to Larchwood Avenue.

In Center City,  some 70 bicycle cops were stationed downtown to handle any potential disturbances. 

The only problem was that yesterday less than 100 protesters showed up. As one cop who was out there said, it was a case of serious overkill. 

But the city is still stuck with the bill. And the total cost of the extra police deployment for just yesterday was an estimated $2 million. 

Of course the cost for accommodating the constitutional right to protest was not something The Philadelphia Inquirer was concerned about when it dispatched three reporters to chronicle yesterday's street theater. 

No, the Inquirer was too busy stoking the fires of racial division, in anticipation of some fresh riots to cover. 

"Philly protesters demand justice in police killings of Black people," was the headline in the paper of record. 

The Inky faithfully and uncritically covered the antics of a "few dozen protesters" who were out in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum hoisting banners that read "KOPS AND KLAN GO HAND IN HAND."

According to the Inquirer, the protesters were watched by "several dozen officers and a half dozen police vehicles" stationed nearby in Eakins Oval.

“I’m so tired of police viewing Black and brown people as threats they can brutalize,” the newspaper quoted protester Kendall Stephens as proclaiming through a megaphone. “We’re not getting protected. We’re getting hunted like animals. … You get pulled over, you get killed.”

Never mind that according to the Washington Post's nationwide database of fatal police shootings, a total of 14 unarmed black victims and 25 unarmed white victims were killed by police in 2019, as cited by Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute. 

Of course in Philadelphia, we do have a serious problem with black men being hunted down and killed. Last year the city recorded 499 murders, the highest rate in 30 years, with more than 90% of the victims being black men. 

As were the vast majority of their killers. 

This year, the city has recorded 149 murders over the first 108 days of 2021. That's a 28% increase over last year, so we're on a record pace this year for at least 638 murders. But nobody was out on the streets yesterday protesting the out-of-control murder rate happening every day right here in Philadelphia. No, they were more concerned about a trial in Minneapolis. 

In anticipation of the verdict in the Chauvin trial, more than 1,000 National Guard troops have been deployed in Philadelphia, at the request of the city. And meanwhile, Mayor Kenney, who has been clueless about how to stop the murder rampage in Philadelphia, called for “active peace” on the streets.

“So when the verdict comes, no matter the outcome, let us resolve to demonstrate peacefully, to voice the pain and anguish loud and clear but without destruction, and let us stay united working to ensure that Black lives matter today — and every day,” the mayor wrote Friday in an open letter to all Philadelphians. 

In his letter, Kenney capitalized references to Black and Brown people but lower cased whitey. He lamented the plague of systemic racism and admitted he "cannot pretend to understand what it is like to be a Black person."

You get the idea. Pandering on a grand scale. 

If black lives with a capital B really mattered to Kenney, he would use his bully pulpit to come out blasting District Attorney Larry Krasner, his fellow Democratic progressive, for running such an inept office, not prosecuting gun crimes, and letting armed and dangerous criminals loose every day, to wreak more havoc on the streets.

But that would involve Kenney doing something constructive to stop the bloodshed, instead of just spewing more hot air. 

Instead, Kenney and Krasner have the same campaign manager. They're both appealing to the same progressive Democratic base. So Kenney continues to place politics above substance, and give Krasner a pass, even though those black people he's allegedly so concerned about are being shot and killed at record rates. 

Former Daily News and Inquirer columnist Stu Bykofsky, who told me he used to be friends with Kenney before they sent him to the reeducation camps, described Kenney's open letter as a "weepy, wokey statement sprinkled with his sweet confection of white guilt."

In his online column, Bykofsky went on to remind Kenney that he was elected as mayor of all the people.

"Discovering your inner Chuck Berry is not your job," Bykofsky lectured Kenney. "Your job is to protect the citizens of this city, all of them, and the city’s businesses, too, which are the blood that keeps us alive . . . Your lack of self-awareness is stunning."

Sadly, those allegedly peaceful protesters may not share the mayor's desire for "active peace" on the streets.

As the protester with the megaphone who was quoted in the Inquirer put it yesterday, "We better get the right verdict."

Or else.