Ralph Cipriano offers a piece at www.bigtrial.net
on the Philadelphia Police Department’s mismanagement in regards to handling
the protests in the city.
When it comes to managing protests, the Philadelphia Police
Department appears mired in mismanagement.
When the George Floyd protests first hit the city on May 30th,
thousands of protesters showed up, and the cops were totally unprepared and
woefully understaffed. The result -- widespread and uncontrolled rioting,
looting, and arson fires that left behind hundreds of millions of dollars in
property damage.
Today, the department was totally overstaffed with hundreds of
extra cops for two peaceful protests that attracted little more than a hundred
protesters.
But under the command of First Deputy Commissioner Melvin
Singleton, who has taken over the handling of protests from recently demoted
Deputy Commissioner Dennis Wilson, the department today brought in 100 bicycle
cops, as well as at least 100 other cops who were being redeployed from units
that included the Evidence Custodian Unit, the Firearms Training Unit, the
Standards and Accountability Division, and the Police Recruit Training Unit.
The police department also called in an additional 50 additional cops from the
Major Incident Response Team.
In addition, the department ordered the entire city-wide night
work shift, some 200 cops, to come in four hours early. And the department also
ordered the entire midnight to 8 a.m. shift, at least 75 to 100 cops, to stay
an extra four hours on overtime.
The total cost of the extra police personnel had to run into
hundreds of thousands of dollars. All to babysit a total of some 200 protesters
at two peaceful demonstrations.
The extra cops were assigned to stake out City
Hall, Love Park, police headquarters, the Liberty Bell and the Art Museum
But in the morning some 100 protesters showed up at the school
district headquarters, mostly teachers, who were there to say they wanted
Philly's cops out of the public schools.
In the afternoon, some 100 protesters showed up at the Art
Museum.
The extra police manpower ordered up by First Deputy
Commissioner Singleton has since become a running joke in the department that
also earned Singleton a new nickname -- First Deputy Commissioner Melvin
Simpleton.
Singleton took over protest management from former Deputy
Commissioner Dennis Wilson, who on June 25th, accepted a voluntary demotion to
chief inspector as a punishment for ordering the June 1st teargassing of
protesters who were trying to shut down traffic on the Vine Street Expressway.
Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw
subsequently apologized for using tear gas on the protesters.
It was the Kenney administration that was responsible for
getting rid of former Police Commissioner Richie Ross and Deputy Police
Commissioner Joseph Sullivan. Under its former leadership, the Philadelphia
Police Department earned widespread praise for its handling of the Pope
Francis's 2015 visit in 2015, the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and the
Eagles 2018 Super Bowl parade.
But after the Kenney administration got rid of Ross and
Sullivan, they brought in rookie Police Commissioner Outlaw. The department was
caught flat-footed by the George Floyd protests. The result was the biggest
municipal disaster since former Mayor Wilson Goode dropped a bomb in 1985 on
Osage Avenue.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
And you can read how the Philadelphia police under the leadership
late John Timoney handled the protests during the 2000 Republican convention in
my Counterterrorism magazine above and below:
Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.
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