PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said police actions to clear the Gayborhood during and after last weekend’s Pride Parade and Festival were not an attempt to sabotage the celebration or community.
“This was not about shutting down Pride. This was about the work and the safety of the community that we serve,” Bethel said.
He said the planned march, which started in the Gayborhood and ended with a festival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, went well, but there was a lack of planning around large crowds gathering in the Gayborhood, where the festival used to be held.
“Folks came back to the Gayborhood, expecting this Pride event that they’d been going to for years, and that was not there.”
In response, Bethel said police made a mistake barricading the gathering crowds on the sidewalk to keep the streets open to vehicles. They also pulled specialized units stationed on the Parkway into the Gayborhood, like those seen in videos online in tactical gear, on motorcycles and horseback. Those officers started clearing the crowds. Fights also broke out, and in the end, 15 people were arrested. Bethel said 14 of them were released with citations.
Bethel also promised better planning in the future.
“We have to get down on the ground with those folks in the planning process to say, ‘Do we have two events now?’ We will not go into the session next year unprepared.”
Bethel said the officers seen in online videos wearing masks responding to crowds have been identified and are being dealt with internally, as masks are against company policy.
City Council will hold a hearing in the fall about the police response.
