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The authorities of Philadelphia, USA, announced, this Wednesday, the imposition of a curfew due to the violence in the city.
The mayor’s office said the city seeks to control looting and violence, which marred two nights of protests over the shooting of a black man by police.
Police during protests in Philadelphia
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny’s office added in a statement that the curfew would begin at 9:00 a.m. local time and continue until 6:00 a.m. Thursday.
Protests have spread through the streets of Philadelphia since police shot 27-year-old Walter Wallace, who was armed with a knife on Monday, and his relatives described him as suffering from a psychological crisis.
Hundreds of protesters demanded racial justice and there were some skirmishes with the police on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
Philadelphia has become the last point of access in the United States on racial issues and the use of force by the police six days before the presidential elections next Tuesday.
In this context, Democratic candidate Joe Biden called for calm in Philadelphia, saying that protesters have the right to demonstrate peacefully, but they have no right to sabotage.
From the protests in Philadelphia
“There is absolutely no excuse for looting and violence,” Biden told reporters after casting his vote in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden added that the protest against Wallace’s police murder was “completely legitimate and completely logical,” but referred to a plea from the deceased’s father to end the violence.
For his part, President Donald Trump blamed the Democratic-controlled city hall for the unrest. “What I see is horrible,” Trump said Tuesday. “Frankly, the mayor or whoever it is that allows people to protest and loot without killing them is horrible too.”
It is planned to deploy National Guard forces in Philadelphia, the capital of the state of Pennsylvania, without it being clear how many of these forces there are yet. And Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf confirmed Tuesday night that he had requested help to restore calm in the Pennsylvania capital, one of the crucial states in the presidential battle between Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
The functions of the two policemen involved in the murder of Walter Wallace have been suspended pending the results of the investigation by the police and the local prosecutor. The two policemen had come to the scene of the accident, after receiving a call in which they were told about a family dispute and about the presence of a man carrying a knife. Philadelphia police spokesman Eric Grib explained that Wallace refused to lay down his weapon despite police orders.
On Monday and Tuesday nights, apart from the protests, the city witnessed riots and looting, to which the police responded with truncheons and arrested more than 170 suspects.
