PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After two straight days of chaotic gatherings by young people at City Hall led to more than a dozen arrests, the Philadelphia Police Department said it would change its approach to curb the behavior from the city’s youth.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said 13 young people were arrested Monday night as a crowd of a few hundred kids gathered outside City Hall for a second straight night and faced off with a large presence of police officers.
“One for assaulting one of my supervisors, my sergeant,” he reported. “One was arrested for carrying a weapon.”
That weapon, he said, had an extended clip and 30 extra rounds.
It came just a day after three other young people were arrested Sunday night outside City Hall for firearms offenses, robbery and disorderly conduct. Seven more were issued citations for disorderly conduct.
Bethel said massive gatherings of city youth, organized on social media, were nothing new for the department. However, the behavior on display over the weekend at City Hall and in other places across the city this summer have forced some changes.
“What I will not allow, and what we cannot allow is to have young people engaged in behavior that is becoming so disruptive, where not only are they attacking themselves, but engaging in gunplay in other activities,” he said.
“We’re looking at a plethora of areas for us to reset our focus.”
Bethel said police would look at potential legislation to give enforcement more teeth and do more to unmask the often-masked young people behind the disorderly behavior.
“We’re gonna be looking to potentially identify them and post their photos,” he shared. “We’ll not show what setting that is, so we can bring that attention to parents.”
More than a dozen were arrested after disorderly gatherings with hundreds of young people
More than a dozen were arrested after disorderly gatherings with hundreds of young people
