Protest on the same route where Philadelphia Police Used tear gas

Thousands of demonstrators walked Sunday the same route where protesters last month were tear gased by the police. The protest started at City Hall and grew quickly in number when people began occupying North Broad Street.

The main motivation for the action was the right to peaceful protest. The reference was the excessive police action that took place in June when protesters were tear-gassed along I-676.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw apologized for the show of force. “I was disgusted on that day, I’m as disgusted as I am today,” she said.

You can read: Fourteen Council Members ask to reform the Philadelphia Police Department

But this time police acted in a different way. They created a perimeter around demonstrators while keeping a safe distance.

Protestors hopped a barricade and ended up on I-676. Streets had already been cleared by police. They marched from Vine Street to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway exit, roughly 8/10ths of a mile, shutting down the main artery in the city.

Organizers were from the Party for Socialism and Liberation and focused on police brutality.

“The things they’re getting away with is not right,” Chris Devoe, a protester, said. “You can’t do people like they’re dogs. You can’t treat people like that.”

“We think it’s important to use your voices,” Corie Thuma, of Boyertown, said. “We teach kids to use your voices, use your words. This is an extension of that.”

“We live under a system where this oppression is perpetuated and there’s no material basis for it to ever stop,” Zeb, with Socialist Alternative, said.

Zeb, made emphasis on the protest symbolic character. “A little bit symbolic because we keep saying, ‘Whose streets? Our streets.’ These are the streets of the working class,” Zeb said.

“We’re the ones who built them, we’re the ones who paid for them and we should be able to use them how we see fit. And if we see fit to use them in a demonstration, a peaceful demonstration, for the lives of African-American and Brown people, then we should be able to do that,” he said.