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NEW YORK: Hundreds of people demonstrated in Philadelphia late on Tuesday (October 27), and looting and violence erupted in a second night of rioting after the latest police shooting of a black man in the United States.
The police department warned on Twitter that “a large crowd” of around 1,000 people was looting businesses in the Castor and Aramingo area, warning citizens to “avoid the area.”
Footage from a news helicopter appeared to show people breaking into and looting a Foot Locker store and another business.
Protesters gather in protest near the site where Walter Wallace Jr. was killed by two police officers on October 27, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo: AFP / Mark Makela)
An AFP reporter in a different location, in West Philadelphia, where another crowd of about 1,000 had gathered, saw police armed with batons colliding violently with several dozen protesters.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s office announced the deployment of several hundred National Guard soldiers to the city “to protect the right to peacefully assemble and protest while keeping people safe.”
The new malaise came a day after the death of 27-year-old Walter Wallace, whose family said he suffered from mental health problems. On Monday night, hundreds of protesters took to the streets and riot police pushed them back with shields and batons.
“There is a lot of confusion about why” police shot and killed the young man, Ezra Alidow, a 25-year-old artist, said Tuesday.
“It’s happening all over the United States. It’s scary,” he said. “These policemen were not trained.”
A protester, wearing a protective mask, holds up a placard during a protest near the scene where Walter Wallace Jr. was killed by two police officers on October 27, 2020, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo: AFP / Mark Makela)
More than 90 arrests were made during the first night of sporadic rioting and looting in the city on Monday, and 30 police officers were injured, including one whose leg was broken when he was hit by a truck.
“For today, and tonight, we anticipate the possibility of additional incidents of civil unrest,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told reporters.
“As such, we will take additional measures to ensure order,” including increasing the police presence in key locations and deploying the looting response team, “he added.
The United States has seen a wave of protests and riots since the police murder of George Floyd in May in Minnesota, when an officer was filmed pressing his knee to handcuff Floyd’s neck until it went limp.
Many of the protests have accused police of racism and brutality, but President Donald Trump has focused on the riots to reinforce his claims of being the “law and order” candidate in his election battle against Joe Biden.
The Democratic hopeful and his running mate Kamala Harris said in a statement that they “are devastated” for Wallace’s family.
But they also called on the protesters to protest peacefully.
Police in tactical gear form a line in front of protesters near the scene where two police officers killed Walter Wallace Jr. on October 27, 2020, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo: AFP / Mark Makela)
“No amount of anger at the very real injustices in our society excuses violence,” they said.
“Looting is not a protest, it is a crime. It diverts attention from the true tragedy of a life cut short,” added Biden and Harris.
Local media reported that two officers shot Wallace around 4 p.m. local time Monday afternoon after he refused to drop the knife when his mother tried to hold him.
Telephone video of the murder posted on social media showed Wallace pushing his mother and then walking towards police.
“Put the knife down,” shouted one of the officers in the video, who disappeared when the officers opened fire.
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Wallace’s father, also named Walter Wallace, said his son appeared to have been shot 10 times, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Why didn’t they use a Taser?” the newspaper quoted him saying. “He has mental problems. Why do you have to shoot him?” she added, saying her son was taking medication.
Outlaw launched an investigation and said the video “raises a lot of questions.”
“While I was on the scene tonight, I heard and felt the anger of the community,” he said in a statement.
The Wallace shooting comes a week after an officer in Waukean, north of Chicago, Illinois, shot and killed 19-year-old black man Marcellis Stinnette when he opened fire on his vehicle.
His partner of 20 years, Tafara Williams, was also injured.
“When does it end America?” civil rights attorney Ben Crump asked at a news conference Tuesday.
“How many more black people have to be killed because of police brutality, excessive force, prejudice, systematic racism, deliberate indifference?”
