With all eyes on Philly, it’s time to look at the city’s violent police department. A week before people crowded the streets to celebrate Philadelphia delivering the state to Joe Biden, Walter Wallace Jr. was shot and killed by the city’s police. “The path to Wallace’s death is paved with decades of violence, million-dollar settlements, lawsuits, no police accountability, and reforms that have only provided more power to the city’s cops,” writes Char Adams, outlining the city’s long history of police violence for Momentum.
Taxpayers have paid for millions in damages in recent decades alone for everything from Philly police lying and planting evidence to “nickel rides,” in which a person is handcuffed in a police wagon and battered during an intentionally rough ride. The Fraternal Order of Police even fought to have years of police discipline overturned. The city paid over $1 million to disgraced officers as a result.
