COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, August 5, 2026 10:17 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILWOMAN MARK F. SQUILLA ALSO PRESENT:
Today is Wednesday, August 5, 2026 for the Committee on Legislative Oversight. I now note that the hour has come. Before we get started, I want to start by acknowledging the presence of our Council President, Council President Kenyatta Johnson. Thank you for being here with us, sir, and good morning. I now note that the hour has come. Ms. Hartman, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance will please indicate you are present when your name is called.
Thank you. I note for the record that a quorum of the committee is present and the hearing is now called to order. Again, thank you, Council President Johnson, for appointing Councilmember Ahmad to the committee today. This is a public hearing on the Committee of Legislative Oversight considering testimony on Resolution No. 260650. Ms. Hartman, will you please read the title of the resolution.
Resolution 12 No. 260650, authorizing the City Council Committee on Legislative Oversight to hold hearings examining the strategy and tactics deployed by the City of Philadelphia for crowd control during and following public events as a result of reports of overly aggressive tactics used by the Philadelphia Police Department following the 2026 LGBTQ Pride festivities.
Thank you. And I also want to say thank you to Vice-Chair and the sponsor of today's resolution, Councilmember Rue Landau. I would like to pass it to Councilmember Rue Landau for any opening remarks before we start today's hearing.
Thank you, Chair Thomas. Appreciate that. Good morning, everybody. I want to begin by thanking my colleagues, the members of the public who are here today and everyone who has come forward to share what they experienced during Philadelphia's Pride celebrations on June 7th. I also want to thank the representatives from the Parker Administration, including Police Commissioner Bethel, for testifying at this hearing and for staying to hear from the community panel and the public comment because it is essential that we hear from those who are directly impacted, impacted by interactions with the police department in the Gayborhood. Finally, I want to thank my staff who worked diligently and thoughtfully to put this hearing together. We are holding this hearing because the people of Philadelphia, specifically the LGBTQ+ community demanded answers. In the hours and days following Pride, my office heard from an extraordinary number of residents, community leaders, advocates and people who they represent and who were present in the Gayborhood that evening. They sent us videos, shared photographs and described what they saw and what happened to them. We heard from people who were angry that there was such an aggressive show of force on what was supposed to be a day filled with joy. We heard from people who were frightened and who have said they don't feel safe going to the Gayborhood since Pride. And many told us the experience reopened a deep and painful wound in the relationship between law enforcement and Philadelphia's LGBTQ+ community, particularly Black and Brown, queer and transgender Philadelphians. The volume and seriousness of that outreach made one thing clear: City Council had an obligation to act so that this never happens again. I want to be clear: Today's hearing is not being held to unfairly demonize law enforcement or to downplay the importance of public safety at large public events. Public safety matters enormously when streets are crowded and when conditions become unsafe. The city has a responsibility to respond, to maintain order. But the existence of a public safety challenge, like the one Pride presents, does not excuse every response made in its name. A responsive government like the one I know Philadelphia aspires to be, must be able to explain why certain tactics were chosen, who authorized them, whether they were necessary and proportionate and what safeguards were in place to protect the public. That is particularly true when the tactics documented include mounted horses and motorcycle officers, mounted horses and motorcycle officers moving through dense crowds, people being pushed or taken to the ground, streets barricaded with little apparent means of exit and officers concealing their faces while exercising government authority. Those are not minor questions of optics. They are questions of the true nature of accountability. The Philadelphia Police Department has said that officers encountered fights, blocked roadways and other public safety concerns. We will examine those claims fairly and seriously today, but we will also ask why a situation involving celebrations in the neighborhood escalated into the deployment of these particular tactics, when it is well-known in advance that crowds would gather in the Gayborhood as they have for decades before. Was the response designed to protect the people gathered in the Gayborhood or simply to remove them at the cost of civil liberties? In addition to the police department, other parts of the Mayor's Administration bear responsibility for the coordination and conduct of its departments. The public was promised a public review and appropriate accountability. Nearly two months have passed. Today, the Administration must explain what it has learned and what it intends to change. The Office of LGBT Affairs also has a responsibility to this community, not only during celebrations and ceremonies, but when LGBTQ+ people are failed by their government.
We need to understand what role that office played in planning for Pride. Whether it was consulted as conditions developed, how it responded afterwards and whether it effectively carried the concerns of LGBTQ+ residents into the highest levels of administration. In advance of today's hearing, my office distributed a public response via email and social media, inviting anyone with an experience to share their story. We received dozens of responses. While not everyone was able to attend today or wanted to attend today, it is important that their voices are part of this record. In the spirit of making this a true people's hearing, I want to share a few of those accounts. One constituent wrote that "The event felt more like a space for cops to show off and invade than a place for LGBTQ+ people to exist. " That was a quote. Another described the conditions that evening writing, "The sidewalks were packed to the point it was clearly unsafe and there was visible agitation because of it. I felt unsafe. My group felt unsafe. " These are not unusual stories. In the days following Pride, my office heard from countless residents. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I also heard these stories personally from friends, neighbors and community members. I saw photographs and videos and heard firsthand accounts that painted a deeply troubling picture, one that I have not seen in my adult queer lifetime as an LGBTQ+ elected official. I want to bring this conversation to the forefront and get to the bottom of it. As a queer person in Philly's queer community, I want to give space to those stories today. I also want to pause and say, I have seen these tactics many, many years ago in the early '90s, and they were rectified and I was horrified to see them come back again. My hope is that the stories we hear become lessons we learn, and that this challenges the police department to take a hard look at what equity and community policing actually entails. Because Pride cannot end on the first day of July, allyship cannot end when it is no longer top of mind. This event traumatized those who visited the Gayborhood for a celebration. And for some of us, it is a reminder of the police brutality that the queer community already endured for decades before. This Pride grew out of a resistance to police harassment and brutality. Philadelphia's own LGBTQ+ history includes generations of people who demanded the right to gather without being targeted or intimidated by law enforcement. That history does not mean police have no role in keeping today's celebrations safe. It means that role must be carried out with that history in mind and with particular care. What happened on June 7th damaged trust, and this hearing alone will not restore it. Our purpose today is to establish the facts and identify where the city's planning and response failed, that we can determine what must change for the next large public gathering, whether it is Pride, a protest, a championship celebration or any other event that brings Philadelphians into our streets. Public safety and civil rights are not competing obligations. A competent government must protect both. That is the standard against which the events of June 7th must be measured, and that is the standard to which we hold the city's response today. Thank you. And now, before we hear from my colleagues and the panelists, I'd like us to take a look at this presentation which features some of the police aggression and intimidation that spurred this hearing today. Michael, can you please start the PowerPoint? )
I don't know if everybody saw the first slide which had the trigger warning of what you were about to see, I probably should have verbalized it as well. I know that was very traumatic and difficult to see and our apologies, but it's important to put it on the record.
Thank you, colleague, for the disclaimer. And more importantly, thank you for your leadership on this issue. Before we call up the first panel, I would also like to announce the presence of Councilmember Kendra Brooks. So with that being said, Ms. Har -- Chair recognizes Councilmember Brooks.
Thank you, Chair Thomas and Councilmember Landau, for putting this hearing together. I want to reiterate why today's hearing and the answers I expect to come from it are so important. Pride is about free expression of identity. Pride celebrations are a political protest specifically against violence, fear and intimidation that have been used against queer people. I was deeply disturbed by the actions of the Philadelphia Police Department in the neighborhood that took place in June and the lack of city preparation. The Administration and the Police Department must provide answers to Philadelphia's queer community about how this could possibly happen. To begin with, I expect answers today about what happened and why the masks were worn. Masks were used to hide the identity of these officers as a part of my ICE Out package. I had direct conversations with the police department about masking policies, and I was told that their dress code policy has specific language banning masks and that this was not an issue. The Police Department and the Administration must now produce that dress code policy because it's clear words and promises are not enough. It was also not lost on me that most of the disturbing images from that day showed primarily Black Philadelphians once again being overpoliced. Just last week, there were reports of more targeted harassment in a predominantly Black bar in the Gayborhood and it's clear that the Pride incident was not just a one-off, but a pattern of harmful police conduct in the Gayborhood. Queer leaders, particularly Black and Brown queer leaders in Philadelphia, have led efforts for social change in the city for decades. Philadelphia is more free, more vibrant and more fair because of their work, specifically through events like Pride that center community building. That's why we need transparency and accountability for this deeply harmful incident. That's my expectation for today and I need to understand why this happened and understand how the city is moving to right these wrongs and leave reassured that it will never happen again. Philadelphia cannot be a world-class city if the images the world is seeing are masked officers harassing Black and Brown queer folks. Thank you so much for giving me those moments.
Thank you, Madam Leader. Chair also recognizes the presence of Councilmember Squilla. Good morning. Thank you, sir. Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad for brief remarks, followed by our first panel for today's hearing.
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Councilmember Landau, for bringing this important hearing forward. I just also want to make a quick note, an apology that I have to leave soon after this. I have a webinar on workplace accommodations coming up, but we will be monitoring, watching and reviewing everything that is said and done in this committee. I want to just start by saying something very simple. Every person who works for this city, appointed or elected, is a public servant here to serve you. And we have to remember that at all times, not just when we are having a wonderful time at FIFA, because we know we can do it. We just had an example of how to do it right. We should be able to do it all the time for everybody regardless of how you present yourself. And so, we need to remind ourselves of that. As the Chair of Public Health and Human Services, I see public safety through a lens of public health, and the impact of what happened is going to have a lasting effect. The trauma that people faced and felt and those even just watching the video can feel is something we have to grapple with, because that is going to impact other things we do in our life. So public safety and how we do our public safety in our city has to always use an intersectional lens of how it's impacting other parts of our society. And so, I want to just make sure we also don't overlook what Councilmember Kendra Brooks alluded to about race being a factor. We have weaponized race in this country, and there has been generations of doing this, hundreds of years of doing this. We have to dismantle that. And in order to do that, we have to look at our structures, including policing and looking at the implicit bias that is built into these structures. And so, what we saw on that day was a result of structural norms that have come along. And so, if we're going to really unpack this, not just for this event, but we have to unpack it for everything we do in our city, whether it's maternal health care, whether it's watching and making an event safe, all of those spaces. But we have to acknowledge that we have weaponized race to such an extent in this country, not just this city, in this country and in this globe. There's race and then there's colorism that pervades society across the board. But if we are going to be that beacon on the hill that Philadelphia should be, we should be able to address that and take that under consideration very seriously. I have all the faith in Commissioner Bethel. He understands what it means to deconstruct these systems. I want to be able to support him. I hope we can work collectively, but we cannot ignore that. We have to put it front and center to say, how do we address that, how do we address what it looked like to have police in this event versus the police I saw when I went to a FIFA game. Why was there a difference? What was the mental makeup plus the preparation that was made for this event versus the other or was there a preparation done? Two months ahead you knew where this was going to be, that there was a venue change, right. We had enough time practically to get all our police officers and everybody who were going to be at that event to understand what they might be encountering, right? So if you didn't prepare, that means you don't care about the community you were going to be serving. So those are the implicit messages I'm getting when I look at how much effort went into welcoming tourists from all over the world versus our own people right here in Philadelphia. So I want to again thank Councilmember Rue Landau and everybody and I'm happy to work with all of you. I'm sorry I can't stay, but I will be looking at all of this to see from a public health lens how we can support, how we can bring behavioral health into the police department in a real way, not just lip service but actual training, starting with cadets, right. This has to be deconstructed at the very base of it, right. So I thank you all for being here.
I am so sorry that the LGBTQ community faced that. I am so sorry that people, Black Philadelphians face the brunt of it. Being a non-Black person of color, coming from someone who's lived through a terrible war, I know what oppression looks like, like death can face you. Anything could have gone wrong that day. So I want to tell you not only do you have an ally because of being an LGBTQ community, but you have an ally in Council who will understand and work with all of you to come up with real solutions. So thank you so very much to all of you for being here.
I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Councilmember O'Rourke. I'll pass it to Dr. Phillips for brief remarks. And then after that, I promise we'll get to the first panel.
I just want to say thank you so much to Chairman Isaiah Thomas for helping convene this hearing. And also thank you, Councilmember Rue Landau, for crafting the legislation that led to this important hearing. I do want to begin just by saying really quickly that today we're going to have the opportunity to look at what are the biggest lessons we learned from this transition and opportunity to learn about how we can ensure that there is better planning processes for major city events of this nature and to ensure that next year's Pride Festival is going to be even greater than any years before as a result of these processes becoming better. I also want to say that I have full confidence that, you know, I know the heart of our Commissioner and he really cares, and he really understands the importance of what happened. And he understands -- he's also thought through how things can be better. So I really believe that next year will be better as a result of us doing what we're supposed to be doing, listening and then figuring out how this doesn't happen again. So the facts don't lie. Violent crime has gone down in the City of Philadelphia by 26%. But we also have to continue to make sure that events like this are superb. And I know the Commissioner is going to do a good job going forward to make sure that doesn't happen. So I just want to commend Commissioner Bethel for what's going to happen going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Phillips. With that being said, Ms. Hartman, will you please call the first panel we have to testify this morning on Resolution No. 3 260650.
Kevin J. Bethel, Police Commissioner, Philadelphia Police Department; Jazelle Jones, City Representative and Director of Special Events; Tito Valdes, Executive Director of LGBTQ Affairs. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning, Commissioner and the entire team. Thank you for being here. Thank you to you, thank you for your service to the City of Philadelphia. If you could please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: It's Kevin Bethel, Philadelphia Police Commissioner. And so, good morning, Chairperson Thomas. First, let me back up. I didn't do the President. President, how are you? Good morning, sir, to you and Vice-Chair Landau, to all the committee members here who I know. So today we're going to talk about the many of the things that you just described. And we'll unpack them, slow them down a little bit and kind of share with you. So we'll go through the background. Talk about what changed that day. We'll talk about how we responded that day. And then we want to talk about, I think it was captured here as well, what the steps are to move forward. But before I start, I do want to have kind of a brief conversation. I've always told my story. You know, I started down here in Center City in 1986. It wasn't a Gayborhood then. And so, I don't do this revisionist history. I talked about how -- and when I say that for me, that conversation never came up. I knew what we did in the community as a cop. I knew how we treated the community. I'm a young, 20-something-year-old kid and you walk into this space, I know the lack of pronoun uses, the conversations that would be had behind the scenes. So I don't sit here as an individual who sit here -- I know the history. I know the trauma that has been inflicted on this community. And then early in 2000, when Commissioner Ramsey would come to the floor of the police department, I would make the decision because there was a lot of conversation around how we were treating our LGBTQ+ community and what we were doing in the community. So at that time, I told Commissioner Ramsey that I would be the liaison for the police department to the community, and I would do that for eight years. I tell people it was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had in my life. I'll let that sit for a minute. It was the first time I was in a space where I saw true discrimination, right. I sit in a room with individuals who we were calling them out of their names and not understanding any of the community. And so, there would be this drive now to try to change that. We would drive to -- we didn't even have a policy, ladies and gentlemen. No one knew the names, and I don't use -- I didn't use the word queer because that word was like using the N word for me as a cop, right, because we knew it was disrespectful, and how it is being reclaimed now. And so, we would embark on creating a policy for the first time, which would guide the department on how we would treat -- now, policies we know are not perfect, Councilwoman, but we would create a policy to do that. We would enhance our liaison community. And some members are here who were on that committee at that time, and we recognize we have a lot of work to do to expand that committee because there's not a lot of -- different representation needs to be on that committee now. Commissioner Massey is here from my team who serves as Deputy Commissioner who's the liaison for that. I said we also would create a goal chapter within our department, you know, I mean the Gay Officers Alliance, because I also identified at the time I needed to address the men and women within the department, where do they go, who do they talk to. And we just met with them recently to really work. I understood and I understand what Pride represents on that day and what it's rooted in and rooted in protest and rooted in what happened. And so, I don't come into this space being defensive or making excuses, but I do come into this space to share with you what happened that day, you know. And I hope at the end we do what we should be doing, behind the scenes having those constant conversations around what needs to change. It was not a perfect day.
It's often the days after when we did our After Action Review, we can look back and talk about the barricades and those things. So let me walk you through what that day was for us. I have Commissioner Stanford here, my First Deputy who leads the work. I have Commissioner Fran Healy here with me as well, Commissioner Dales from our Internal Affairs, Commissioner Massey. And who did I miss. I think I got -- who? Why are you back there, man? Commissioner Cram, come up here and find a chair because this is your people from patrol. So they'll join me up here. So we can work and start on the first slide. So you'll see I'll go through the history of the event. We'll talk about the safety planning. I think that came up in your conversations. We'll talk about how the day started, ladies and gentlemen, and what would cause this shift in that day. We'll talk about our response. There's a lot of conversations about our response. Many of the videos you have, I have the same videos, but I have a few more that would give you some of the insights into why we had to activate the way we did. We'll talk about the complaints. The cost, this is something that comes out of my budget to police and what the cost will look like looking ahead. So we go to the first slide. As I shared, we have a storied history with the Pride. We very rarely, very rarely have had an event at the Pride event. Many of the men and women will volunteer to work this event. Many of the men and women are from the community who are part of the event. And so, we have worked hard to make sure that we maintain that history. It has been at Penn's Landing. We had the festival at Penn's Landing. We are not surprised and everyone knows that Pride after the events have gone back to the Gayborhood. But as you'll see as we go through our presentation, that will change. This next slide. Part of the process was it would move to the Parkway. Folks need to remember this: We have been in the Gayborhood since I can ever remember. For the first time, the event is going to be moving the festival to the Parkway. There's multiple reasons for that. It gives a larger footprint for people to attend. It offers a stronger infrastructure in expanding the programs. It creates more opportunities for community engagement and participation, increased Pride's visibility and supports long-term growth in that space. So we agreed with the new movement of the location. And we do take the approach we did -- and why we took the approach we did. One of the key things, next slide, is around safety. And I know people just kind of brushed across that. Next slide. Part of 2016 during Bastille Day in Nice, France, a truck drove through a crowd, killed 86 people during that. At that point and leading up to that process, the police departments across the nation would shift. We have a problem now, ladies and gentlemen. We have a problem because we know that people can get in a car and drive down the street and kill people. We know we have a number of soft targets that can impact that. And so, you'll see that in many of our deployments on the Parkway, we're using the big trucks, the sanitation vehicles, multiple-ton trucks because it's not just a car coming down, a tractor trailer can come down. We use Meridian barriers to be able to block the sidewalks or a car coming. So those things are in the backdrop of when we plan these types of festivities. Next slide. When it specifically comes to Pride, there are specific targets as it becomes the Pride. Individuals have now decided that Pride events are going to be a target of where we're going to go. You just saw recently in Berlin just in July, last month, a woman was killed and 29 injured. Those are the things that are in our mind when we're planning. So I want people to understand that. I don't brush across that.
It is important because we have a duty to make sure that when this event happens, particularly Pride, that we are protecting those who are attending, and we're doing the same thing we do for July 4th. Any big event, if you come to a big event on the Parkway, I don't care who you are, we're putting in those levels of protection because we know there's a good chance that someone can defeat that. Next slide. So there is planning that goes into this process. It is relegated to our men and women in the Central Division. And I'll talk about later how we make some adjustments. Commissioner Stafford is doing that. We did have a complete new leadership in Center City. We acknowledge that the inspector is new. The two captains are new. So we don't have some of the historical relationships that we customarily have. I know the Gayborhood. I worked in the Gayborhood as a cop. I also knew it as a deputy commissioner. So we do have some adjustments. But I still am confident and despite that -- and yes, we made some missteps -- full confidence in my leadership in Central and how they operated. So again, next slide. So this is Pride and the march. We will start in the Gayborhood. As you can see, the Pride will proceed north to Market Street, going west on Market Street, around City Hall, down north on 16th Street, and then over and out the Parkway. That is the Pride event. That is where we're moving our men and women into that process. It takes a large number of people and officers to contain that area. Some folks will sit there and say, why do you have so many officers. Because we have to protect the entire blueprint. We can't just rely just solely on someone blocking a vehicle. We're also looking for people and entities, someone coming in there with a satchel. All those things are important. And the more officers we have out there, the greater we have of seeing what's going on and being that deterrent. Next slide. This is the blocking setup that goes into the Parkway. Those circles, the green ones, and you will see are Meridian barriers. The yellows are where we block. So no truck, no car can come into that space while the Pride event is happening or any event is happening. We put an insulated barrier around that space. It takes a lot of work to get that done. It is not me. I do not drive sanitation trucks, so we're coordinating and planning with our team to make sure that happens and make sure that happens successfully. You will constantly -- anyone that comes down the Parkway will see that deployment. The next slide. This is the setup, ladies and gentlemen, in the Parkway. This is the festival. I want everyone to take a hard look at what is there. There is event space. There is activation space. There's vendors. There's courtyards. And you'll see some pictures later on. There are security staff in there. There are volunteers in there. There are people. I don't own that event. What we're doing now is protecting that event. And there is obviously the organizers. I think it's -- I saw it coming. They do a great job of setting that up. Next slide. This is last year for Pride in the Gayborhood. Very similar setup. I have blocking vehicles on 12th Street, 13th and Walnut Street. I have men and women who are stationed outside of there. There are things for people to do. This is a planned and organized event. This is what was in the Pride for last year in the Gayborhood that has now moved, now moved to the Parkway. I highlight that and you'll hear me highlight that again. That's not there, ladies and gentlemen. There is nothing there in the Gayborhood at this point. Just want to make sure we're clear, because that has not been distinguished between the two events. We know people are going to come back to there. But coming back to what is the conversation we'll have. Next slide. In the Gayborhood, we block the Gayborhood because of the same things that I told you before. We don't want people in the streets to be run over by a vehicle.
So you will see the same last year, sanitation trucks are blocking the vehicles so we can keep that area safe. It's similar that we did at the Pride this year. That is part of the makeup. Often times folks don't see it because we are doing it so often. It gets blended into the process. But our goal is to keep the Gayborhood and keep those attending safe. Next slide. So the planning timeline. There is ten scheduled inperson virtual meetings that are held prior to the Pride events and the events that are going to happen on the Parkway. Early meetings focus on the relocation of the Parkway, planning discussions, logistics, traffic management, control, fencing, public safety discussions are had about the vehicle-ramming threats that I described, and there are numerous additional calls that are occurring with our team, with Jazelle's team and with others, organizers as we move forward. So let's talk about the next slide, how the day started. I mean, the day starts. This is going off extremely well. I actually pulled a photo of you, Councilmember Rue Landau who's leading out, because you were on the Parkway. You saw the Parkway. The Parkway is going --
Point of clarification. That's a 2025 picture. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: 2025, okay.
I was on the float this year, and you'll hear about what happened when we tried to get off the float. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Okay. Well, I apologize for that. I mean, I thought that was for this year. That's my mistake. But overall, the Pride event, the pictures, we're moving on the Parkway and things are going well. Next slide. Down on the Parkway things again are going well. To the right, I'll show you a clip that's in the backdrop of how things are going well on the Parkway. (Video playing.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Again, just sharing with you for those who were not there. Obviously again, I apologize to you, Councilwoman, for the photo. That should not have happened, but saw that photo -- the video comes from what's going down in the Parkway. There's a -- I was not there, but all reports and all the reports are coming to me from the field that things are going great on the Parkway and things are moving through. Folks are having a great time. So again, next slide. As the day is evolving, 11:00 a.m., again everything goes well. And by 12:00 p.m., we're surveying the Gayborhood. Everything is good. By 11:15, we're underway at the Parkway, already underway at the Parkway where we've now moved the Pride event to the Parkway. We're now starting to see activity in the Gayborhood. We're starting to see an influx of personnel and people are coming to the Gayborhood. We're now at 2:00 p.m. We're still continuing to see pedestrian volume increase. So at 2:00 p.m., which is not customary, even if we were not and we were going to move the festival and go somewhere else and come back to the Gayborhood, our staffing is not coming in until about 3:00. And so, we're facing some challenges early in the process because we are now seeing a significant increase in pedestrian traffic in the Gayborhood. While the full Pride event is now underway at the Parkway, that's a dynamic we could not have predicted. That creates a challenge for us because even when we do the events of the day, it's later. By 5:30, we're now starting to see some issues and we're shutting down some of the streets. By 5:50, we're now moving our deployment. Again, there are those who think it's easy just to say we'll take everything, the Parkway is doing good, just move folks over. It is not built that way. Each one and every person out there has a responsibility. And every time we pull, we create a weakness in the Parkway. But we are able to move some of our mechanized personnel. Our MIRT team, our Mass Incident Response Team, is the first group that moves. Those are the ones I'll talk to you about in the all black. Ladies and gentlemen, they are never often times seen. I had about 400 of them work the FIFA. They come out when there's a potential biological agent that's been dispersed. There may be an explosive event. There may be something. They're highly trained. They have masks to be able to go into a space. If there's something been let go in that space that is biological, chemical. But because they're a mechanized group and we're forced to move staffing over to the Gayborhood, we move them over. Portions of the crowd detail again are there. We do start to move people over. Next slide. At 6:55, there are multiple incidents that we start to see. And I'll share with you some additional videos that you shared. By 7:30 -- and I won't go through all the timeline -- we are now initiating our push to move the crowd out because of the things that we saw that were causing us concern. The men and women who started that day on the Parkway would start from 8:00. They would not finish up until midnight that night. Councilman Thomas, do you need me to stop?
(Indicating no). COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Next slide. So I'm going to share with you some incidents that would drive us to start to make some decisions that we now need to move folks. And most of that is happening on Walnut Street. It is on the outer rim of the Gayborhood. But we're now having some issues with young people. For the purpose of my videos, ladies and gentlemen, I blurred them. I felt it was important that it was not my duty to show -- particularly, I'm going to show you young people. I would come to learn that those young people are from the community and came to the Gayborhood. And so, I am not showing their faces. So it may be a little hard for you to see, but you'll be able to see some of the activity and the lang -- I mean, not the language, but the movements of the folks. But it is purposely blurred because it was our duty and our job not to disclose those young people or anyone in my videos being disclosed. So if you could do the first one on the left. (Video playing.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: This is the 1200 block of Walnut. So again, we're seeing -- when we have young people to come into a space, and for those who know, I work around the flash mob and we still deal with that, I'll talk about that, we have that on a regular basis, young people who are surging across the city --
I'm sorry. For clarity, because we can't see that video, I don't know what I just watched, right. So help me understand. Are you saying that this video is a group of young people? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: It is a group of young people there on Walnut --
Define young people for us. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So we're talking about teenagers. So we have young teenagers --
I know I'm not supposed to do this and I apologize. Help me understand. High school basketball coach, on the Board of PIAA District XII, downtown all the time, see groups of young people gather like this probably daily, right, and not just in Philly. What does that clip -- because I can't see it. What does that clip of young people have to do with today's conversation? I'm confused. And I'm not -- an honest question. I can't see it. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. If you allow me, if I continue through the videos, what we're seeing now are the kids that are fighting. They move into an alcove. They're taking over the 1200 block of Walnut. I'll show you an additional video.
Right. So this is what I'm trying to understand, right. The kids gather in Center City and do their thing on a consistent basis. So when I think about Black Pride, I think about mostly adults. These are kids. So because you pulled the video up, just help us understand how this incident with these children that I can't really see has to do with adults celebrating Black Pride? (Applause.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Again --
No, no, no. Let me do this. Let's stop, because I don't want him to think or anybody to think that we're trying to be spicy. I'm legit confused. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, I think it's legitimate. There's a build-up now. What I'm building you up to is what's going on. We have a large group, about a thousand, a large group of young people who have descended into the Gayborhood for what they think is something there. There is nothing for them there but other than to take over the street at this point, which was not planned. And so, that's part of my moving forward what do we do. We've been getting a build-up of young people who've been coming to the Pride event for over the last couple of years. This would be the largest group of young people who would come to this space. To do what is the question. And that's my issue moving forward. What do we do with young kids who identify from the community, who come into the Gayborhood, hundreds of them, and there's nothing to do. So when you have young people who come into the space -- Councilman Phillips, we dealt with your young people up at the rec center. We deal with young people who are surging all over the city. B. Moore, we've got calls from Council about the different places where they come and we move them. We don't arrest them. And you'll see even in this case, we didn't arrest very few. We had one child, a 16-year-old who was arrested. We come in and we just move the crowd to break them down. And if you let me go through it, you'll see. So that's part of a continuum. Again, we're getting additional fights. Now, kids are getting jumped by other kids. I have a duty, I have a duty to not allow others to get victimized. I have a duty in the fight to take some action to make sure that someone doesn't get hurt. I stand by and do nothing and a child gets knocked down, brutalized and assaulted, I'll be in a different conversation sitting here now as to why you didn't do anything. So we have done this customarily. It's our rhythm. We move the kids along. They move along. They break them down and make sure that everyone's safe. It's not pretty. It's not pretty when you move a crowd of young people, especially when they don't want to move. But that's what we're doing. It's not to harm them. It's not to take anything away from them. And they did not go to the Parkway. Whether it was because it was $10 to go on the Parkway, whatever that was, the kids did not go to the Parkway. And we have to figure that out. And folks in this room, not me, folks in this room have to figure out what are we going to do with those young people. What are we going to do with them as they move through this process, especially young people who are identifying now and willing to come out. That's a good thing. Listen, we should praise that. We should praise that. But I need folks who are chirping to help me do that because I don't know what to do in that situation, but we can talk about that. The next video is the kids again building up. I know it's hard for you to see it, but I could not show the videos of young people. But you're seeing kids that are fighting now and that's continuing. Again, same area. We're in the Walnut area. We're in 12th and Walnut area. I won't belabor you, but go to the next video. At some point, I told you 1200 Walnut is open. We ultimately closed it, but we have the young people and now Meridian, we're taking over the garage. Now, if you could hit that video. Okay. So now, up inside the garage, in some cases they're on top of -- we're not sure. We can't tell if there's a wall or cars, but they've now moved into the garage area. We don't have control over this. We don't have control over this. Next video. You'll see a young lady is now -- an individual has moved up and climbed up onto the top and now hanging off. If that young person, that juvenile fall from there and with us not taking any actions, what would the conversation be then, right.
And so, we're making sure that we are again addressing the behavior we're seeing, and that's what we're doing. I don't need to show the next video, but we can skip to the next one. And so here, because I think it's important now you get to our response. As I share with you, been at it a long time, right. We know as young people, there's nothing for them to do, they converge. I am not making an indictment of none of those young people. That's us as adults to figure out what the hell to do with them. That's our job now. I'm telling you right now and I'm setting that tone now. That is our job in this room to figure out what we're going to do with those young people because they're coming. They weren't on social media. They weren't on social media. This was not a set-up. They didn't call each other down here. They actually appear, from what we can see, looking to attend something. And so, our response at that time was we're going to deal with this as our kids are converging, that we're starting to lose control of the area. We're going to make the decision now that we're going to push the crowd out. I'm going to show you a video. I think you shared those same videos. I just want to add a little bit more context to those videos. At some point, we move -- there was this conversation the horses have taken over. I have two horses on the Parkway that move over to the Gayborhood to help with our crowd control issues. You will see on the left. -- I don't need to show the videos because there's a repeat of your videos. I blurred the videos out, but the horses are 1500 to 1900 pounds. They have been used in crowd control for over 200 years. The goal of the horse is to minimize, one, because they have high angles and they can see what's over them; two, it did exactly what they're supposed to do. When people see a horse, they run. It de-escalates the situation. Now, that may be very intimidating and I understand that, to folks who do not -- it can be very intimidating to a group of young people who have never seen a horse move methodically like that, but the horse is not running anyone over. They said the horse was charging. They do a normal slight trot that you saw the young people move away from that area. You see them on the other side. The next slide. Here again, the conversation around our officers moving them out. For the purpose of not repeating, you already saw that video of the officers moving those individuals out. At this point, we moved our motorbikes over into the space. We've moved our MIRT team over into the space. We have two Academy classes down there. We have young officers down there. And so, we use our motorbikes who often times, often times are out in the field doing ATV details, who are chasing ATVs, etc. But because they're a mechanized component, we need to move more mechanized groups over there to start to move folks out. Is it pretty when we put the bikes up on the sidewalk? No. 5 Are we looking and examining that? Yes. Customarily, we would like to use our bikes, just our plain bikes to be able to press those. We have about 30 bikes. We don't have enough staffing to do that. So the motorbikes are a component that we use. But if you look at the video, most of the individuals when they saw the bikes, turn around and just walk away. We do encounter some people, some minor resistance, and that's customary whether we're on bikes, whether we're on horses, whatever we are. But the mechanized group just turning on the sirens. But if you look at the videos, you'll see most of the folks just turn around and said, we're going to move and they were compliant. Should we have broken out the barricades? Yes, we can sit there as part of our process. But part of when we do that and we move people out in the street, I go back to the question we had before. Once they get in the street, I have to find a way to put the bollards up and to be able to block them.
So there is this thing -- even if I put them out into the street and I let them go out into the street, the question I will keep coming back to all of you in this room was to do what? We have some bars on 13th Street. I think there's a DJ. Mike Weiss has something set up at 13th and Locust. But other than that, there's no events, there's no porta potties, there's nothing here to do. So even if we take away the barricades -- and we will accept that the barricades created this thing, this kettling that people talked about. And after After Action Review, we realized that we should have made a different decision. And so, accept that as part of the process. We admit that. But we also recognize in that process, even if we did, we would have had hundreds of people standing in the street. I cannot stop a car coming down the street that may do something to those individuals. And I don't know what we would have done other than drinking and what else. Where are the events, where are the things that make people feel the part of the Pride that they normally -- because what happens is people are coming to a Pride event in the Gayborhood thinking it's the same event they had last year, not realizing -- and I don't know. So messaging has to be a part of that, has to be a big part of that. You're coming to an event. You're looking like this is not -- even some of my cops came up and they didn't even understand it. So next slide. There's some conversations about some of the activity. You showed a video of my officer tasing and there was conversation about individuals being tased. No one was tased. However, what we did have as part of our policy is the officer able to arc, to create that electric sound, as a deterrent and it de-escalates to move crowds. You'll see the sergeant in -- you'll see the officer doing that. We have removed that as part of our policy. And we are going to a new taser, a Taser 10 that does not allow the arcing. Even the manufacturer realized that that arcing can give people a sense -- so I fully understand why people felt tasing was happening. The officer was moving around, as you saw. You already saw the video. I don't need to show it again. But she is arcing it to move the crowd, and you see the crowd is moving. It is not pretty, but they are given that authority. She's working under the authority of me as the Commissioner and policy. And me as the Commissioner will change policy to recognize that that can be harmful. And so, we have changed the policy, but also moving to something to not allow that to happen. Next slide. As it relates to arrests, I just want to clarify. Our job was not to harm those kids. Everybody knows my work. I don't put young people, juveniles, young people in a space where I want to arrest them. So despite all of the issues we have with many of our juveniles, I arrest very few of them, very few of them, and the men and women in the department know that. In this case, we arrested two young juveniles, one for disorderly conduct at 11th and Market at 9:30 at night. The other one, we have a carjacking that happens around the corner. In the process of doing the move, there's a carjacking that occurs around the corner outside of a bar. An individual's car is taken and two individuals, an adult and a juvenile are involved. They turn into the traffic where we were on Walnut Street. And so, we make an arrest. Those are the only two juveniles out of all of this that occurred. So despite the conversation that we were in there, you know, arresting and doing that, we did not. We would make arrests all the way -- you can show the slide. Many of the slides, you'll see the upper part, the top part is in the Gayborhood area. But we would make arrests all the way down onto Walnut Street -- I mean, onto Market Street, 16th and Locust onto Broad Street. Ladies and gentlemen, we deal with the crowds for all night long and all the way up until 12:00, 12:30, do we not resume the detail to turn it back over to Central.
So even though we moved the crowd off of the gate out of the area, we were still struggling with large pockets of kids that were moving around the city to do that. I apologize. I know I keep saying kids. I'm 63 years old. I apologize. It's no disrespect to our juveniles. I know some people are sensitive to that word. But fully understand that I'm talking about juveniles. I hear you in the background. It is not meant to disrespect young people. So young adults, whatever you want to call them. Next slide. The conversation around complaints, we received a total of six complaints. I believe we received an additional complaint today from CPOC related to a job. Three of those jobs were for physical abuse, pushing and shoving. Two of those jobs were for verbal abuse and one was the policy violation related to the mass of the kids wearing -- I mean, the officers wearing the masks. Most of these jobs were not made by the complainant. In some cases, people watched the video, the videos that you showed earlier and called into Internal Affairs to make those complaints. And so, that's where those complaints came from. So for those, we did not get any complaints that anyone said they were beyond what you see here, pushing and shoving, which I think some of the videos captured verbal abuse, which we're addressing and the team is going through that process. And now, Internal Affairs has that investigation. The next slide. There is a cost associated with all of this. The cost for the Philadelphia Police Department, that comes out of my budget. This was grandfathered in as an event that we would fund. Costs for us to put the staffing out there to be able to do the layers of staffing that I talked about is around 355. There's another $85,000 that comes out to a total of $438,000 to put that event on Sunday. And so, as we think through moving forward next year, that's going to be an important factor looking ahead. Next slide. Looking ahead here's what I see, and I hope everyone in here sees it the same way, Jazelle will have to talk about it. But this is the event on the Parkway and this is the event in the Gayborhood. We have to now determine and plan that we are going to have two separate events, two separate events, working with who's either the organizer for both, to ensure that we have it set up in the Gayborhood for those individuals who are coming there so they can have a good time and have it the same way we've had it years past and those who are going to attend the Parkway. Who that may be, Councilwoman, I do not know. And that's a conversation that we will have with Jazelle. I'm not a party planner. My job is to make it safe and secure for the folks who attend these events, and we do countless of them. We did the FIFA with no 10 problem. People made a question about the FIFA. But the difference between the FIFA and the fans, because they were compliant, they did not cause any issues. They were not fighting. They just moved through that process and we moved effectively with them. Next slide. What we will do moving forward. Part of our process is this was centered in Center City. We're going to move that. Recently, we created a policy planning and special events team led by a Chief Inspector. This event will now move into a higher echelon of planning so that we have the complete oversight of what is going on. That is a direct report to Commissioner Stanford, who's the First Deputy. And so, he will ensure that we have a centralized, coordinated, organized event. He will ensure that we have all the implementations and the processes that we use for our FIFA and our America 250. As part of our ongoing commitment, one of the things we've always done, particularly when we're doing First Amendment activity, and Commissioner Ramsey instituted that, was that we were talking about in front of our people about what the roles and responsibility and people's rights.
And so, part of this job now will be we will do that before a Pride event, because often times both in our academy and our training they will get that. But moreover, when they're at those events, we will give our men and women a history of Pride because I think often times they don't understand the history of that and the tension of that, and that this was borne out of protest. And any time we're in that space that we're going to trigger the trauma of the past, how we have to comport ourselves in a way to make that effective. We're going to continue to meet with Tito, who put together a group of us to start talking through what are the next steps, who are the key stakeholders because they're missing people at the table. And who are those missing entities who should be at the table to discuss how we have better communication, how we have better planning, how do we reset all of that, we're looking at our liaison that Commissioner Massey oversees to see what that liaison group, how we can build that group out to be more effective. There are a lot of things going underway. But I will end here. And I know I took up most of your time, but I appreciate you giving me the grace. We did not go into Pride with the intention of those things happening and having to turn folks away from the Gayborhood. Yes, we acknowledge that we have to do a far better plan of planning. Yes, we have to make sure that we have an organized process. But what I will tell you, it will not go out today, no 22 one in my department gave any order that you're going to go down into the Gayborhood and attack the LGBTQ+ community. That is not who we are as an organization. That is not who I will allow us to be as an organization. We went down there with the purpose of making it safe. It wasn't until 7:30. We went quite a long time trying to get things, even though it wasn't perfect. And we have some things that we look back, my executive team, my entire team, to see how we can make it better. But I stand here before all of you and I say this to you, next year it will not be like that. It will be prepared. It will make sure that everyone who is supposed to be at the table, who came after the fact or at the table exactly saying what do you want to do. Because it is not my job to police that event. It is to keep it safe. If it's done properly, it does not require me to put the officers in there. It just requires me to take our positions, make sure we keep it safe and you own it. That's the goal. My goal is to keep it safe, and that's what we're going to do next year. That is our vision for it next year. So I'll stop there.
Thank you for your testimony. Other members of the panel, would you like to provide your testimony before we jump into questions?
Good morning, Chairperson Thomas, Vice- Chair Landau, can you hear me?
Okay. Councilmember Brooks, Councilmember O'Rourke. And thank you for your ongoing advocacy and partnership to this community. It doesn't go unnoticed. And of course, members of the Committee on Legislative Oversight. I'm Tito Valdez, Executive Director of LGBTQ+ Affairs for the City of Philadelphia. Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding Resolution No. 260650, introduced of course by my friend Councilmember Landau. I am joined today by my colleagues, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and City Representative and Director of Special Events Jazelle Jones. And while they can best speak to the public safety and event planning aspects of this year's Pride march and festival, I'm happy to speak about this city's unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ+ community, not just during Pride Month, but throughout the entire year. First, I'd like to provide an overview of the Mayor's Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs. The office serves as the city's primary liaison to Philadelphia's LGBTQ+ community, working to strengthen relationships between city government and LGBTQ+ residents, organizations, businesses, advocates and community leaders. Our mission is to foster meaningful engagement, advance inclusive policies and practices and ensure city services are responsive, accessible, and reflective of the diverse communities we serve. Established to elevate the voices and experiences of Philadelphia's LGBTQ+ residents within city government, the office works across departments to identify opportunities, address challenges and create pathways for collaboration. This work extends far beyond Pride Month and reflects the Administration's commitment to ensuring that every Philadelphian feels seen, respected, valued and connected to their government. Pride is one of Philadelphia's largest and most visible celebrations, and its success depends on the collective efforts of event organizers, city agencies, public safety partners, businesses, volunteers and community members. Each year the Office of LGBTQ Affairs recognizes and supports Pride celebrations as an important expression of the strength, history and diversity of our LGBTQ+ community. While event planning and execution are led by Pride organizers in coordination with relevant city departments, our office remains available as a resource to support communication, community engagement and connection to city leadership when needed. This year, our office supported the celebration by maintaining an open line of communication with organizers as well as community stakeholders, making ourselves available to assist where appropriate and helping to expand community access and participation through support for community members attending Pride events. Following this year's Pride celebrations, which successfully brought thousands of people together for a vibrant and memorable celebration on the Parkway, our office recognized the importance of continuing the dialogue beyond the event itself. In response to concerns and frustrations expressed by members of the community following the celebration, we convened conversations with LGBTQ+ organizations, business owners, community leaders, residents, advocates and event participants to better understand their experiences and identify opportunities for improvement and to offer greater transparency. On June 16th, we hosted a two-hour inperson information gathering and solutions-focused meeting with key community stakeholders, representatives from the Mayor's Advisory Committee on LGBTQ+ Affairs, leadership from the Mayor's Office and other city departments, all representing the Administration's commitment to listening directly to community members and supporting a collaborative path forward. As with any large-scale public event, of course there are opportunities to reflect, to evaluate and to improve.
During that discussion, the Philadelphia Police Department, led by Commissioner Bethel, provided an overview of Pride weekend operations, including crowd management strategies, public safety outcomes, enforcement activity and ongoing accountability measures. Members of the community also shared their experiences and perspectives regarding public safety interactions, accessibility and communication. What became clear through these discussions is that there is a shared desire to strengthen the relationship between the city and the LGBT community, law enforcement and event organizers. While this conversation of course did not resolve every issue, it created an important opportunity to listen, to better understand different perspectives and to begin building a foundation for a meaningful collaboration. One of the key takeaways from these conversations was that trust is built not only through dialogue, but through how we respond to what we hear. That means acknowledging concerns, identifying opportunities for improvement and remaining committed to continued partnership. Community members identified opportunities to strengthen future Pride planning through earlier engagement, improved communication, expanded accessibility considerations, greater youth inclusion and continued efforts to build trust between law enforcement and the LGBTQ+ community. Participants emphasized that public safety and community dignity are shared goals and that both must remain central to future planning efforts. Moving forward, my office will continue working with our partners to advance recommendations focused on three priorities: Rebuilding trust and accountability, expanding inclusion and accessibility, and strengthening coordination, investment and community partnership. These efforts will include establishing stronger collaboration structures among Pride stakeholders, expanding LGBTQ+ cultural competency efforts, enhancing communication protocols, developing a comprehensive LGBTQ+ youth engagement strategy, conducting a citywide LGBTQ+ listening tour, exploring community-based safety and wellness initiatives, identifying sustainable resource opportunities, and establishing measurable indicators to evaluate progress, just to name a few. What we heard through this process was that this conversation is about more than one weekend or one event. We know that Pride is rooted in history and community and culture and in belonging. We remain committed to fostering meaningful relationships between the city and Philadelphia's LGBTQ+ community, continuing to learn and supporting efforts that promote dignity and respect for all. The Mayor has consistently emphasized that the strongest solutions are developed in partnership with the communities we serve. That principle will continue to guide my work and the work of my office as we build a Pride celebration that is safe, welcoming, accessible and reflective of the diversity and strength of Philadelphia's LGBTQ+ community. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.
Good morning. Thank you, Chairperson Thomas, Vice-Chair Landau and members of the Committee on the Legislative Oversight. I am Jazelle Jones and I serve as the City Representative and the Director of Special Events for the City of Philadelphia. Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding Resolution No. 260650, introduced by Councilmember Landau. I am joined today by my colleagues, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and Director of the LGBTQ+, Tito Valdez. Commissioner Bethel's testimony spoke to the public safety aspect of this year's Pride march, and Mr. Tito's testimony spoke to the city's ongoing partnership with the LGBTQ+ community. My testimony is going to focus on the importance of event planning overall when it comes to ensuring successful events. First, I'd like to provide an overview of my office and the hundreds of events that we support each year. Most notably, I want to share some important takeaways from the multitude of 2026-related events this summer. The Office of the City Representative and Special Events serves as a one-stop shop for the planning, production and permitting of special events throughout Philadelphia. Our mission is to ensure event organizers obtain the appropriate permits, licenses and insurance required to host a safe and successful event within the city. Our team also serves as the primary point of contact for special events. We assist organizers with site plans, road closures, permitting requirements and other operational details depending on the size, the scope and complexity of an event. Our office coordinates planning meetings between event organizers and the city's Special Events Task Force, which includes representatives from city departments and agencies who are responsible for the permitting, the coordination and safe execution of special events. These agencies include the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Fire Department, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Streets, Philadelphia's Parks and Recreation, the Departments of Licenses and Inspections and many other key partners. Together the Special Events Task Force reviews permit applications, the site plans, traffic management plans, public safety plans, ADA accessibility plans and other operational documents to ensure that events are safe and properly permitted as well as coordinated. This collaborative model has successfully supported some of Philadelphia's largest events just this summer, including FIFA Fan Festival, the MLB All-Star Red Carpet Show, Wawa Welcome America Festival, the 4th of July concert and Fireworks, America 250 celebrations and soon the upcoming Philadelphia Cycling Classic and numerous other festivals, races, parades and community events. This review process also helps determine the level of city services that are requested and/or required for each event, including police, fire, sanitation, traffic control and many other municipal resources. In addition to coordinating the permit process, our office provides onsite operational support for many major events, including the Philadelphia Pride March and Festival that took place on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The permitted Philadelphia Pride March and Festival on the Parkway was executed safely and successfully through close coordination among event organizers and city partners. The event, which typically exceeds over 60,000 attendees throughout the day, featured a new location which had an expanded footprint to improve accessibility and overall event experience for the attendees, security screening and a dedicated medical unit to enhance public safety, a traffic control plan that followed the city's proven Parkway event model, utilizing an established road closure footprint that has been successfully implemented for major events along the Ben Franklin Parkway.
The event organizer, Philly Pride 365, applied to host the Philadelphia Pride March and Festival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a premier event venue that has successfully hosted nationally recognized events such as the Made in America Festival, the 2017 NFL draft, Welcome America and the annual Philadelphia Marathon weekend. Upon review, the proposed move was approved because, in part, the expanded footprint provides the space and infrastructure needed to support the event's continued growth in attendance, programming, entertainment and community engagement while increasing its visibility as one of the city's signature annual celebrations. Hosting Pride on the Parkway positions the event for long-term success, allowing organizers to build upon its momentum and accommodate future growth in a safe, accessible and world-class setting. The office of the City Representative and Special Events remains committed to supporting the Philadelphia Pride March and Festival as well as all the other permitted events throughout the city with professionalism, collaboration and attention to detail through thoughtful planning, strong partnerships and a steadfast commitment to public safety, accessibility and operational excellence. Our office will continue to ensure that all events of all sizes are coordinated and executed safely, successfully and in a manner that best serves event organizers, our residents and our visitors alike. I thank you for the opportunity to testify today and I am also here to answer any questions that you may have.
Commissioner Bethel, the masks. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I'd just like to -- during the movement and didn't show a video, at the end of one of the videos you would have seen one of the officers depicted with masks on. First and foremost, we did a thorough analysis. We went beyond the four -- there were additional officers. I believe eight or nine officers who had on masks. I sit here today and I can tell you I have absolutely no 8 idea why my officers were wearing masks on that day. That is not acceptable. That is not a part of the policy and you are 100% -- Councilmember, I sat in your room 13 and I told you that and I said that that's not what we do. But just like anything, unfortunately folks violate policy and we have a process for that. We immediately -- Internal Affairs is investigating that matter. The officers right now, as I said, they work in the district and they move into these MIRT components as a specialized and privileged entity. They are not in that position at this time as we go through the investigation. I won't go through anything more because they are going through a disciplinary process. But I stand here before everyone, my men and women are not supposed to be wearing masks unless it's by policy. Now, you may see one of my highway patrol officers on a 30-degree day going down 95, yes, they're going to wear masks. On January 1st during the parade, yes, we're going to give them some authority to wear something that is much more comfortable. But for their daily duties and their daily work, they do not and shall not and will not be wearing masks. We will address that. We addressed that internally and we'll address that through the disciplinary process. I just want to make sure I get that out.
And so, if I can thank you for that statement. If I can just offer a little recommendation as it relates to what they wear. It's been cold for as long as I've been born. The mask phenomenon is a new thing. So whatever people need to do to stay warm, don't wear what they wear. And we all know who they are. All right. So whatever is going to be to stay warm, there was a long time where we would stay warm with mittens and all these other things that were not masks. This is a new phenomenon. So even in the cold 30 degree weather, -30 degree weather, I don't think it's any excuse for law enforcement to cover their face. We can go earmuffs -- (Applause.)
We can wear gloves, we can do a lot. But I don't think that we should let the weather justify people doing something in 2026 that they didn't do in 1996. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And I hear you, Councilman. I just want to meet you somewhere -- highway patrol officer who's on a wheel going 60 or 70 miles an hour, whether he's doing a parade or a lead or something, that air hitting his or her face is significant. And I think --
You've been around a long time. What did that officer do before we were in this ICE phenomenon? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: They've always worn -- on the motorcycles, they've always worn some type of shield. But they take them off. It's only done when they're riding, not when they're --
We'll cross that bridge when we get there. You know where we are as it relates to that. And I just want to remind folks, when young people were wearing masks, we demonized them, right. It didn't matter if it was cold. It didn't matter what was going on. They got demonized when they were wearing masks. And unfortunately, we find these justifications, especially in a climate like this, for law enforcement to do it. I have to pass it to Councilmember Landau. She's going to chair the rest of the hearing. Before I pass it to Councilmember Landau, I'm just curious. You said in the beginning that you had officers, to use your words, you had officers who are considered amongst the community, right. That was part of your testimony in the beginning. How many officers who were deployed that day would you consider amongst the community? And then how many -- because if I'm amongst the community and I see something wrong, I think I feel a little more obligated to report it. So how many officers that day that were deployed were considered amongst the community? And how many officers reported any bad behavior from their colleagues that day? So we're looking at video where we clearly see officers doing wrong. I'm curious did any other officer say, hey, Rue, you got a mask on, you should probably take that off. Were there any reports that day from officers reporting officers for behavior that we should not have seen since there were so many officers out there that's amongst the community? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I don't have that information as to where all of those -- we did both the external complaints and then what we have, Internal Affairs is going through all of the video of all the men and women through their body-worn cameras, to see if we determined that there is anything that was in violation.
But did a police officer report another police officer for being in violation? Was there one officer who said, man, they got on masks, that's not right, I'm going to report this? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No. I think in that regard as part of the investigation, it should have been a supervisor who identified those -- those men and women were under supervision. It is the supervisor's responsibility at that time to identify that the officers are not in policy and make those adjustments. That is part of the investigation internally that we're doing. It should have not taken an officer to say that this person should not have a mask on. It should have been the supervisor who was managing those men and women to identify that those persons were not in policy.
Commissioner Bethel, this is where -- so let's go back, because we have a long history. And so, there was a time when you were running school police and I was the Chair of the Education Committee. And when an incident happened in a school, a teacher who witnesses the incident is obligated to report the incident whether I'm in charge of that person or not. So help me understand how do we have a climate with law enforcement where I can watch my colleague do something wrong, and then you are telling us that the person who's responsible for addressing the colleague doing something wrong is a supervisor and there's no responsibility for the officer standing next to the officer with a mask on? So if I'm with Rue, right, and Rue does something wrong and I don't say something to Rue, the public will view both of us as doing something wrong. So I'm trying to figure out why would it be only the responsibility of the supervisor? And again, I'm asking -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying in that situation there the supervisor had a duty and responsibility to make sure his people were in the proper uniform. As it relates to overall, our men and women are trained and in policy that if they observe officers doing things that are inappropriate and outside of policy, they have a duty to stop that behavior and they have a duty to report that behavior.
So the mask wouldn't fall in that category? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: But what I'm saying to you, yes, even if the officer saw the person that had a mask on, he or she has no authority to say, hey, Officer Smith, take that off. He or she would go to the supervisor and give that information.
So that was my first question. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: My position is that could have happened. That's why we're going through the investigation. We don't know if that happened or not until we do the investigation. I don't know that.
Come on, Commish. I mean, the incident happened a long time ago -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, I'm going through a --
You don't know if one officer reported one officer? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Listen --
Let me explain why I'm asking. Because when you communicated early on, I'm just listening, right, all the videos and clips, I seen maybe one or two. I'll give a shout-out to Jacen for telling me that's what was going on. But a lot of this information is new for me. So I have no bias here, right. I'm collecting information. I'm listening to questions. And when I hear the intention of the Administration is to put people of the community in the event, it would give us the perception that you're putting people there who are sensitive to the issues that's going on, knowing that they would -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I --
-- they would address it -- okay. Go ahead. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: First and foremost, I have a number of officers who do not identify within the department. So I couldn't begin to tell you the number of officers I --
So you gave us the wrong perception. You probably shouldn't have said that to us. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I met with my GOAL Chapter after this event. In that process, I found that some of the officers were down in that space during the operation. They shared with us that they had concerns about how we operated. They had concerns about the barricades. And it did not come up that they -- depending on where they were. They could have been on 13th and Locust, standing on the corner, watching a barricade and not seeing any of the behavior that you're describing. So I don't make any assumptions that those folks that I described to you who identify with the community who met with me were in that place where you're describing the masks. That was a small area where we saw the men and women walking up with the masks. I can't tell you who was in that space was from the community who would have said, hey, there's something wrong. That being said --
I understand what you're saying. I'm just going by what the testimony was that was communicated. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: That being said, when we investigate things through Internal Affairs, we do an expansive -- that's why I told you, I could easily sit with the four people you showed me and say that was it. We went through every video and said, oh, there's additional men and women who are wearing masks, because we didn't even see it in the video. That was expanding the investigation. Part of Commissioner Dales and his team will now go through and they will sit down and will determine what was being said in that situation. There may have been an officer who went to a supervisor and said something is wrong, you need to do something.
So you don't know? You don't know if any officer -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I have a process. They have due process. I can't make those -- they have to go through a due process. My men and women go through an interview process. They have attorneys through the FOP in that process. We're going through the process of an investigation. We're not going to sit there and make any assumptions. I want to know why they were in masks. Those things will come out. And then at that point, we'll be able to make a full determination of what was said, when it was said, what should have been done, what was not done. And then I will make and ultimately the department will make a disciplinary decision as to what should happen to those men and women. But I can't do those things without getting all that together, Councilman. I cannot sit there and say he did it because I would expose that investigation. Even if I had that information, I could not sit here and tell you that Michael Smith gave that information because that would not be appropriate. We need to make sure the investigation -- even in this public environment, I have things that I have to -- and processes I have to do. Because if we can do that, then guess what, there'll be no discipline.
So, Commissioner, look, let's take a step back. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
All right. So first of all, let me commend you because you're the only person who came up here and said, we did this wrong and we'll do better, right. So I appreciate you having a spirit of being open to admitting what wasn't done well and then saying, this is what we need to do moving forward. So let me provide that context because I think that's important. I think just listening, and this is it and I'll pass it to Councilmember Landau, the Chair moving forward, not knowing much information coming into today's conversation and listening and watching, especially the video of the young people, I still don't understand what young people fighting at 3:30 has to do with -- or whatever time it was. I'm going to explain it to you. In broad daylight, we're watching young people fight. And anybody who knows the City of Philadelphia, we know the young people gather because they just want to gather. So I still don't really understand the context of the young people gathering the way they did while the parade was happening over there and then the young people in broad daylight doing what they doing, leading to this aggressive police presence that happened later. So I'm not even going to go there. I'll let Councilmember Landau figure that out. I think what I'm listening to and what the concern is, is it doesn't really feel like we're having a conversation that can put us in a position of earning the trust of a lot of the people who feel like the trust has been lost, because some of this stuff is let's just call it confusing. And so, when I listen to you talk about the officers and I'm wondering all of the negative behavior we've seen, like my instinct says, wow, did any of the officers say anything. I mean, it's okay to say you don't know, and I would never ask you to name an officer, but there are a lot of people -- there are well more than dozens of officers out there. And as we're watching this clip, I think what we're trying to figure out is the culture of the police department. Do we have a police department where the culture is if I see somebody doing something wrong, I'm going to say something or do we have the culture of a police department whereas if I see somebody doing something wrong, this is my brother, this is the brotherhood and I'm not doing nothing, I'm more loyal to the brotherhood than the people we serve. And I think that's the thing that we're trying to figure out right now. (Applause.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I think that's a big jump. You have 553 men and women on station that day. Of that, nine individuals were identified wearing masks. So I would say this --
So let's move past the masks. Masks was just one thing. I think we saw other behavior that was problematic. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: But you said a culture, right. I want to put it in context.
Yeah, culture. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: If I got 553 people and that nine people were in violation of the policy, we're going to address that. So when you say the culture, I mean, I don't know -- I don't know where you're going with that when you say the culture. On this day I am walking -- we're walking through that process. We have a duty. See, I don't have the luxury of looking at a clip and saying, that's all I have. I don't have the luxury of looking at a video and saying that little 30-second shot -- I need to do the complete. In that investigation, I'm not just looking for masks. I'm looking for any other violations. Did those officers use force that they weren't supposed to, beyond just the masks. Did any of those officers engage in force that they weren't supposed to. We're going to be looking at their body camera. What happened at the end when they walked, what happened before they walked up and put the mask on. When did the body-worn camera go on? When did they activate the body-worn camera? There's multiple layers, multiple layers --
I'm not denying that. It was more of a yes or no thing, right. It was an alley-oop, Commish. That was an easy one to be like, no, of course not, that's not the climate of our police department. We understand we serve the people of Philadelphia. We're here to serve the people of Philadelphia. And if someone sees someone doing something wrong, they see something, they say something. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: But you know that, Councilman. You know that.
That's called an alley-oop, Commissioner. Yes, of course that's the case. I'm telling you that people have the perception that that's not what's going on. So I'm throwing you an alley-oop so you can let the people know -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I don't need an alley-oop. Listen --
Hey, look, this is what's going on. We are not that type of department. We do because you're -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I've said that countless times. You focused on the masks and you centered around the masks. You start with a question around --
Commissioner, I promise I'm not focused on the masks. And this is going in a direction that I don't think is productive. So what I'll do is I'll pass it to Councilmember Landau so Councilmember Landau can begin to chair the conversation, because I'm just trying to -- I'm trying to be the mediator right now and put us in a position to restore trust with the public. And I think you're getting frustrated with me because you think I'm trying to have these gotcha moments and I'm not. I'm just looking at the audience. I'm looking at their facial expressions. This is the teacher that I am. And I'm saying, whoa, they're cringing back there. They don't like that. Let's come back with a different tone and let people know, hey, look, no, that's not the climate in our police department. Our folks are taught and trained if they see something, they do this, they do that, they do this -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I said that to you. I told you that. I told you there was a policy --
Madam Chair, you got it. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)
Commissioner Bethel, we have known each other for a long, long time. I was running the city's Commission on Human Relations. You were a Deputy Commissioner. You were my number one point person when we were resolving issues in the City of Philadelphia. I must admit that your testimony today and what I'm hearing is both painful and perplexing. Your description of what happened on June 7th and the way you've described it, you ended up contradicting yourself multiple times. You said you knew people were going to come back to the Gayborhood, that you knew they would migrate there, that you had planned for it. And then you would say on another separate occasion you didn't know this was going to happen. This was something that wasn't planned. Your own slide says you had ten scheduled inperson and virtual meetings that were held between April 17th and June 4th. Yet early meetings were focused on the event's relocation to the Parkway. Yet planning discussions, public safety discussions and numerous additional phone calls occurred before and during the event to exchange intelligence and coordinate planning, logistics and merging. It is mind-boggling to think that you and your team would not know that people were going back to the Gayborhood. When we went down to Penn's Landing when Pride was there for many years, we went back to the Gayborhood. This was not a surprise. It wasn't unexpected. And, in fact, it is my belief that there actually was a version of a plan; is that correct? That with the captain, there was a version of the plan of what to do that day? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: As I shared, I don't think I'm being contradictory. What I'm saying to you is it's easy for -- we didn't know what we were going to expect back there. We knew people were going to come back. We knew that. What they were going to do and what it would be is what we would not be able to anticipate. There was no way anyone could anticipate -- yes, they're going to come back to the Gayborhood. But if the event has now moved, if the event has now moved to the Parkway, we've shifted all of our assets to the Parkway. Then, yeah, we're going to come back so the team set up a pedestrian detail, right. We're going to let the traffic move -- similar to what we do after, you know, we used to have the Greek and after the Greek in the park, folks would go to South Street. After we have the Mummers, they go to 2 Street. After we have the Puerto Rican Day parade, they go back into -- but in all those cases, there are organizers. There are folks who are helping to manage it and keep it together, you know what I mean. What we did not and could not anticipate there would be a large number of people who are not going to go to the Parkway. If they're setting up -- if they're coming to the Gayborhood at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, what does that tell you, Councilwoman? Our detail wasn't even set to start until 3:00 because we did not anticipate that they would be in the Gayborhood that early.
Commissioner, this is not my job to anticipate when folks are coming back. It is your job. And I will say this -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I know my job, Councilwoman. I know my job.
When you described the Greek Picnic going to South Street and Mummers going to 2 Street, you did not say that there was nothing there for them. Because to us there is never nothing there in the Gayborhood. For us, there is community. There are bars for people who are over 21. There is music, there is fun and there is absolutely community. And when you saw young people in the parking garage, they were dancing. They weren't fighting. They were dancing. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Councilwoman, Councilwoman, now, let's be -- we have to have a -- the only music that I made aware of is what Michael Weiss had set up at 13th and Locust. Yes, historically there was what you just described. But somebody tell me that was there that day. Yeah, I got alcohol, I got alcohol being sold. Folks are telling me that -- show me the video. You showed a lot of videos here. Somebody show me a video of what you described, that there's DJs out there for people to dance, that there's urinals for people to be able to go to the restroom if they have to. I mean, from what I've seen up to this point there is nothing out there but what is up at 13th and Locust. And then there's other people who are just walking around. Yes, when they go to South Street, that would be a challenge for us but there are stores there too, right. And so, there was a lot of commercial activity and we would ultimately wind up, guess what, Councilwoman, pushed people off of South Street when the crowd got so bad that we could not control it and it would get out of control and we would ultimately -- and I would lead those as a sergeant, as a lieutenant, as a captain and as a deputy commissioner as well, because we would have to move people because that convergent behavior will become dangerous. You talk about the young people. You can't separate the process. You can't have kids who are fighting in a breezeway, hundreds of them, you can't have kids who are taking over a business and people can't get their cars. You can't take kids who are -- I didn't show you all the videos. All right. I mean, you pick and select the videos. That continuous behavior, we've seen enough of it. Then there's a shooting. There's a shooting. And then everybody's looking at me like, well, why did you do that. The goal was just to move them out. We're not going in -- we don't make an arrest. So if the goal is what I described, to move them out of that space, push them and get them out of that space. We didn't take them anywhere. They stayed downtown until o'clock, o'clock in the morning. So we didn't say you couldn't be here. But what we do know and we have enough evidence of it, that we have large groups of young people who get together with nothing to do. Partying, what? partying? Tell me what party are we describing.
Commissioner, Commissioner, first of all, let me just say one thing. It is 2026. This is where the kids have their music (indicating cell phone). They don't need a DJ. The second thing is whose fault is it that you're saying the kids have nothing to do when I'm also saying even getting together as a community is something to do? The kids are not allowed in the Fashion District after 2 o'clock. They're not allowed in Liberty Place. We have shut down all of their places. And most importantly, we are raising money for the Attic Youth Center to open their building, which they have purchased at 12th and Chestnut. And we have asked the City of Philadelphia for additional funding that was not even approved. I have been championing that for the Attic Youth Center to move there to 12th and Chestnut. This is where they belong. When we were describing what happened at 12th and Walnut, you said what were they all doing there, how could they all congregate there. They will have their home at 12th and Chestnut very, very soon. They belong there. They belong in our city and they are allowed to congregate. (Applause.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Listen, I'm happy that the Attic -- I mean, I've been as a Deputy over in the Attic talking to young people. When I sit there and tell you about -- listen, we did our due diligence. Initially, I didn't even know the young people were from the community until you slowed it down and you start to see the Pride flags and all of that. And so, I gave the charge to this body, right, and to all of us, right. What did we do? It's a good thing. It's a good thing that hundreds of young people or young people of color who are sitting there saying, hey, I'm out and I want to be a part of something. It's our job, our job. And I'm 100% supportive of that, Councilwoman, to sit down with whomever to say, what can we do with those young people. If Pride was set up the way it was, somebody tell me, the organizer, would they have let 500 of the kids into the event, would they have let them? Yes, absolutely, right. And what you would do at that point and say, what do you do for them, because it ain't about alcohol, right. We got the bars. But we're talking about 14- and 15- and 16-year-old kids, yeah, so they need to have something to do, right.
They were doing it. They were dancing. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Listen, but I think we can sit here --
I want to ask some specific questions and get them on the record so we can move on to get community conversation happening here and community voices. But what operational guidance was provided to officers assigned to the Pride event? Were there instructions to follow a specific incident action plan or rely on prior training and experiences? And I want to specifically find out what my understanding is, is that there was some version of a plan by the Captain, but that a Chief Inspector overrode that decision. And also in your testimony, I want to be really clear about this when you talked about force. For most of us, riding a motorcycle on a barricaded sidewalk where you can't go anywhere, that's force. That is terrifying. That is dangerous. (Applause.)
We don't allow bikes on the sidewalk. We don't allow motorcycles on the sidewalk in general. You put motorcycles on the sidewalk with barricades when there were too many humans on there and you knew it and you did it anyway. You brought horses into areas to terrify people. There are so many things -- you said we were going to block off the street, but we couldn't -- you had enough motorcycles and police cars that, yes, you could have blocked off the street. You could have. These are choices. These are decisions. I want to know was there a plan? What was the plan? Who created the plan? When did the plan change? Who created the new plan? Let's get it all out now. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So let me say this: We go into these plans with a safety plan to create a barrier around those events. That is the first leg of that process. There's multiple layers below that. We're prepared to go with our MIRT team if something significant happens. As I said, someone sets off an explosive, a biological agent, chemical agent, we're prepared to go with that. We have Rescue and we work with our Fire Department. And that's what you heard Jazelle Jones say, there'd be some kind of mass incident, so we are prepared for that. As it relates to the Gayborhood, it's a traffic detail. It's a traffic detail. It's not set up for anything other than to maintain the traffic and people moving. At some point, the Chief -- yeah, the Chief is the Chief. He is the authority. He has a higher skill set. And he made -- the Captain may have mentioned it, he wanted to break the barricades down. The Chief in his experience may have determined in this case that he had a different course of action that he would take. And so, he did. He is then going to move into a secondary move. So at that point, when we move from a traffic detail, we are set up, we are trained and well-trained to be able to say we're going to shift. At that point, we're going to shift and we're going to shift to a process for the safety of the young people who are there, for the safety of the crowd. We are going to now move the crowd out of that area to make it safe. People can disagree with that and I respect that. I respect folks who have never been in that experience, seeing a motorcycle could be traumatizing and we apologize. That was not our goal. I can understand if someone has never seen a horse. Most people don't see my horses. So seeing a horse used in an operational element for traffic or crowd control can be disarming to people. We understand that. But we have the capacity to move from one process, and then we move into our execution mode of doing that, and then we move into maintaining the order, and then we move to going back to basic order. So those orders don't specifically -- the men and women know, the leadership knows how to move through that process. I can go from a very calm situation into, hey, guess what, we have to move people off the July 4th Parkway because of thunder strikes and we move into that process. There are multiple layers of our training and our process that allow us to do that. The Chief has the flexibility to do that and we execute, and he used that to execute.
Do you believe that their decision to put motorcycles on the sidewalk with the barricades was a good decision? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I believe that the goal to move the crowd out of that area for their safety was appropriate at the time. That's what they had at their availability to do that and they used that. Yes, I agree with that. However, I do caution that had we had other assets to be able to do what we knew, could we now as we come back and look back and the conversations we're having today, that what that does, I mean we are and we talked about looking at what the impact it has on people when we see those motor -- as I shared with you, when the motorcycles went up the sidewalk, 99.9% of the people moved.
Of course they moved. The motorcycles are on the sidewalk and they're in a barricade. They have two choices. They're going to get run over or they have to move. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: But, Councilwoman, I think this is going beyond just the motorcycles. I don't think if I had officers there, it would have made -- at that point, folks just did not like the fact that they were being moved out. Whether I use motorcycles, whether I use horses, whether I use people, whether I use bikes, it is based on what we hear. The kettling and the blocking of the sidewalk caused significant issues for us. It caused that convergence and that squeezing of folks together and that made people uncomfortable. And that's what we recognize now. We recognize that we can't do that. We have to avoid those situations because of what it caused to folks. So, yes, we took a lookback. We did in our After Action Review, is that the best course of action, right. The Chief is working off of what he has at the time. We're trying to move folks and he's moving things very quickly. The MIRT team would not have been in that front position. We do not use them in that front position. But because we needed to get assets over there, we did. So we did have entities that were out of their components if we had a full deck of the things that we have to do. But we're shifting personnel from the Parkway over to the Gayborhood. We're trying to make a process to make sure it moves safely. Our goal is to get our folks out of there, make sure they're safe, make sure there's no 14 harm to them. And ultimately, at the end of the day, I mean, two years prior we had a shooting on Market Street following one of the Pride events where the young people had come down and got on Market Street. Obviously, we had the unfortunate homicide on Camac, but I don't associate that with the Pride because that happened at 2:30, and that's a significant loss. I mean, you know, part of that was what happened as well. So there isn't a backdrop of this, the men and women trying to avoid what we had a shooting in 2024. We had something to happen in the offset. We don't want that to happen. So that is also working in the backdrop of all of this, because I don't know who has potentially has a weapon. I don't know who wants to do harm down there. And so, we're moving folks out. And that's the process that we used.
I would suggest that most people did not believe that you were there to protect them. They were terrified. They were harassed. They were traumatized. This was not about protection. You had 150 officers there by your own testimony. That is a significant amount of officers. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: But I disagree with you. I'll tell you what, then do you want police there at all, because that's the question then, right? Is policing there at all?
My comment that there was 150 officers there should not turn into the zero-sum game of do you not want anybody there. (Applause.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: That's not what I'm -- Councilwoman, listen, you know I have a lot of respect for you. And so, we're having a conversation. So just make sure I'm not being disrespectful to you when I push back. I want you to know that. But that's conversation. I shared to you earlier in the process if this is done properly, then I should be having a reduced number of officers coming into the Gayborhood. All I should have is officers standing on the corner as we've done year after year. Something's going on that they can't handle, the marshals or the volunteers will come out and say, hey, listen, we got a problem with X, Y, Z. But we don't sit in -- the 13th and Gayborhood, we're not in -- we have men and women moving through. And it's a good day, right. It polices itself. The community polices itself. That should be the goal.
But for those barricades, I believe that it would have been an easier and good day. And so, let me just -- I have other logistical questions that I'm going to submit to you in writing. I appreciate that. I do want to clarify something for all the press that's listening. You said that there was one arrest at 9:30 at night at 12th and Market. Even last year, Pride ended at 7:00. So I want to be really clear about what you're conflating that is happening with Pride and the aftermath and what is not. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: You said Pride at 7:00, right. Well, we didn't start moving the kids, young people, until 7:30. So the Pride was over.
My point was you talked about an arrest that occurred at 9:30 at 12th and Market. And I'm saying this would have been long after any event. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Understood.
The truth is this, there was an expectation people were coming back. There could have been a plan. There could have been a reassessment of the plan. You guys all seen -- we've all been in situations, it's getting out of control. There could be a huddle at that moment to change tactics and change the way things were happening. That did not happen. You went forward with the course of what people saw as overpolicing, aggressive policing, of really feeling like the one thing that we know in all of the times that we've worked together, the cornerstone of community policing is trust, communication. None of that was there. That was all broken. That was absolutely broken. And it will take a very, very long time to repair this. Again, I actually find this painful, more painful than I could have even expected. We look forward to moving on and working on this. And I apologize to the community that it has taken this long to get you up here. The next panel is going to be fantastic. There has to be an accountability that leads to potentially even an apology, as we know, is always a very helpful thing to help and start healing. And we need to really, really work on the healing process to get to the next place. I want to end with one thing, Commissioner, with all respect and we will help support you on this, please, please, please start calling your officers, officers and not your men and women. There are trans and non-binary people on your force or folks who are scared to come out. (Applause.)
Officers, that's it. Thank you so much. Ms. Hartman, can you please call the next panel. Thank you.
Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. The Chair calls Councilperson Phillips for some questions. I'm sorry.
Thank you. I'm just going to be really brief. Commissioner, I just want to -- just because we're in the business of problemsolving, so I want to thank you for coming along to help us problemsolve for next year. I just want to be clear on the record. What I'm hearing is that the intent was to ensure that that day was safe and sound. Unfortunately, there were things that happened that didn't allow for that to happen the way that you planned, such as the disruptions that you said the young people came out. Now, what I hear with the barricades, you're like, okay, these decisions were made, you're now looking into other alternatives such as not locking down the sidewalks, other things that you could do. In moving forward, what I'm also hearing is that going into next year you're going to be looking into if the permit group, as Ms. Jazelle Jones, if they want to have people at the Gayborhood as well, that has to be a part of the permit process so that the police department can prepare for that as well. And because you weren't properly prepared for that right at that moment, it led to an array of decisions being made that weren't necessarily all the way in step with the department's processes and decisions. Is that what I'm hearing as well? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I believe you have that right. Because as you ended, Councilwoman Landau, there needs to be an -- when you huddle, I usually huddle with the organizer of the event, the Parkway. I have somebody to do the huddle with major events. There's always somebody to huddle with to make the pivot that you described, Councilwoman. That needs to be organizers to be able to get into that huddle to make those decisions. So, yes, I believe you got it correctly.
Thank you so much. And I just have two questions. How does the department determine when a large gathering has shifted from a celebratory event to a public safety concern? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Say that again, sir.
How does the department determine when a large gathering has shifted from a celebratory event to a public safety concern? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: When conditions change, where the behavior is now starting to get out of control, where folks are now engaging in violent behavior, whether it be amongst themselves or against property, is when we have to make a determination that we have to take action. And so, we cannot wait until the windows are broken or that folks are now being injured to use that as the barometer. We've been at it long enough to know that there's, you know, when folks are fighting, fighting, fighting, now, you're getting retaliation in the moment because now fighting creates more fighting. Broken windows create more broken windows. So we try to move very quickly to be able to move that and manage that because we find that it's more effective for us. It limits our need to make any arrests in that situation and we get people to move along.
Okay. And my final question is, could you describe in the ideal world, and I think you kind of hinted on this already, if you haven't, but in an ideal situation could you describe the de-escalation strategies that police officers are trained to use during large public events and how those strategies and whether those strategies were applied during Pride or were they not fully? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, the officers are trained to de-escalate. We have an able program that they go through that teaches them to de-escalate. We have policies that require them to de-escalate. We have required policies, and we see that happen on a regular, regular basis. We see that more now than I've ever seen in my career where officers are saying stop, where officers are saying you can't do that, where officers are engaging and making sure that they understand their roles and responsibility. Do we have to do a better job with Pride? I shared that with you, when we -- because often times folks don't understand the history of Pride and the trauma of Pride. And so, being able to share that information is also a great de-escalator too, because they understand the why, why is there so much tension. I'm just standing here. Not understanding when you activate like that, it triggers so much of the history of policing and the LGBTQ+ community. And so, those are the things we add to our conversation now so we fully understand that. But I'm fully confident that today the men and women who are in the department today are doing a good job of de-escalating through their training, de-escalating their colleagues, etc. And Councilman Thomas, I may not have hit the mark when he was asking that because I thought he was talking about something more specific. But the men and women that are doing that, Councilman, on a regular basis, even as we look to the video of Pride, we'll see officers disengaging. If I show you videos, I mean, there is a lot of stuff that's coming at them where the officers did not engage, who are being cursed at and bottles are being thrown at them and things are being said to them where they just did not engage, and they absolutely did what they're supposed to do in their training and trained to do.
Yeah. I think that one of the things that I learned today is that now, especially hearing the testimony from Ms. Jones, is that there's going to have to be -- potentially if that happens again, they're going to have to be permitted in that area as well, right. Because I can understand that it is probably very difficult for you to quickly pivot strategies at that moment when you think it is in one area and then you had to do the quick communication. So I just think it's important that all parties are working together going forward. I have confidence that that will happen next year. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much. Ms. Hartman, can you call the next panel.
Chris Bartlett, Naiymah Sanchez and Jacen Bowman. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Thank you all so much for your patience. Can you please state your name and your pronouns and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning. I'm Chris Bartlett, he/him/his pronouns. Vice-Chair Landau, members of the committee, we really appreciate you hearing our testimony. And I just want to thank Minority Leader Brooks for being here and sticking out. And most importantly, to thank our incredible vocal and wise community for having our backs today, as we're here to speak for those who might not be able to -- I'm getting some height here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning. I'm Chris Bartlett, the emeritus Director of the William Way LGBT Community Center and a longtime student of police-LGBTQ relations in Philadelphia. And I'm honored to be joined by my friends and colleagues, Naiymah Sanchez and Jacen Bowman. W. Bush at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in September 1991, I directly observed a police riot that led to injuries of three of my friends. All three experienced lifetime trauma from the violence they faced and the two who are still alive experienced PTSD to this day. I believe Councilmember Landau was there with me that day. I myself sat on Broad Street as police, horses and hostile police attacked my friends for the crime of expressing their constitutionally protected civil right to protest. My experience was not the first time that LGBTQ people had faced overpolicing by the PPD. In 1959, when Mel Heifetz owned the Humoresque Cafรฉ on the 200 block of Sansom Street, police raided the cafรฉ, which was filled with underage coffee drinkers. Heifetz later learned that Captain Rizzo was most upset that Black and White patrons were drinking coffee together. Because LGBTQ people exist in every neighborhood and every demographic in the city, we are one of the communities where individuals come together across differences to explore our similarities and police should be trained to understand this dynamic as a community asset and not treated hostilely. But the LGBTQ and police relationship did begin adversarially. Under Frank Rizzo, the department treated LGBTQ people as a part of a group of undesirables, alongside sex workers and drug dealers, to be controlled rather than protected. The department lumped Center City sex workers, drug dealers and LGBTQ people together. And if police didn't try to eradicate these marginal groups, they tried to control and harass them with raids on our community's bars, common through the early 1980s. This era included aggressive crackdowns on cruising around Rittenhouse Square and Schuylkill River Park, also known as Judy Garland Park, and violent raids on gay bars, leading many to be verbally and physically abused by officers. , and in Philadelphia in the 1960s Captain Rizzo had a policy of anti-gay harassment that persisted institutionally for years. Even after Mayor Rizzo left City Hall, that harsher style of policing continued in the department. Today we've heard that it continues to this day when our bars, especially those patronized by Black LGBTQ people, are overpoliced and experience aggressive policing when de-escalation should be the strategy. Transgender Philadelphians, especially trans women of color, describe their experiences as particularly dangerous. One activist recalled in the Gayborhood of the early 1990s, the worst threat of violence for trans people didn't come from drugs or robbery, but from the police department itself. This culminated in the case of Nizah Morris, who died in 2002 while under police custody in the Gayborhood. Formal positive engagement started in the late 20th century. The Police Advisory Commission was formed more than three decades ago under Commissioner John Timoney and Mayor Ed Rendell in the wake of the 1991 ACT UP protest I mentioned. It was a hard-fought victory for community advocates. Since before then, there had been little official positive interface between the LGBTQ community and police. , brought that model spirit to Philadelphia.
When Ramsey took office in Philadelphia, he said he hoped to implement a similar unit and also planned to have all officers, not just new recruits, undergo LGBTQ-sensitivity training over the following two to three years. Attention also turned inward towards LGBTQ officers themselves. We should note the 1999 suicide of Gilbert Colt, the first openly gay police officer at that time soon after graduating from the police academy. That suicide spoke to the intense pressures on out police officers. These LGBT officers in the Philadelphia area formed a chapter 16 of the Gay Officer Action League, GOAL, around 2015, joining existing chapters in New York, New England and Chicago. " In fact, it's quite the opposite. Deputy Commissioner Kevin Bethel at the time, then the department's LGBT liaison, argued the department had grown more tolerant with younger cadets, while still acknowledging that officers needed their own support network, and he predicted internal tolerance would translate into better relationships with the broader LGBT public. And I just want to note, as I was researching this history, numerous leaders pointed out the great work of Commissioner Bethel over the eight years he pointed out in developing this LGBT Liaison Committee, including leadership from our community. By the early 2020s, the Liaison Committee model was showing its age. The group brought forth innovations like Directive 152, which outlines how officers should respectfully interact with transgender community members during stops and has helped with victim support and diversity training. But this is an all volunteer liaison committee of the police department with no oversight power. And by current standards, is arguably toothless. A 2022 attempt at revitalization stalled, co-chairs developed a strategic plan to move things forward, but momentum was short-lived due to command changes throughout the department. Today with Commissioner Bethel at the helm of the police department and with a history of good interactions with the Liaison Committee, we expect that the department will build upon its earlier successes. Recent reports of raids on LGBTQ bars in the Gayborhood and on South Street and unnecessary escalation by police of encounters with LGBT citizens, including aggressive attacks on ACT UP as recently as 2021, gives us reason for great concern and shows that years of hard work to build LGBT- friendly community policing strategies have reverted to the historic policy of control rather than protect. When police come into our neighborhoods to control us, especially when they consciously disobey department policy by wearing masks, We know that we need some strong leadership from Commissioner Bethel and department brass to show that there will be zero tolerance for escalating police hostility towards LGBTQ Philadelphians and our social spaces. Thank you. And I'll turn it over to Naiymah.
Thank you, Chris. Well, we're at good afternoon, City Councilmembers, Co-Chair of the Legislative Oversight Committee, my friends in the gallery and the neighbors that are watching today. I know it's a privilege to sit here in front of you today. My name is Naiymah Sanchez. I respectfully use she/her pronouns. And I'm here today in support of examining the actions of the Philadelphia Police Department during the events on Sunday, June 7, 2026 when Philadelphians celebrated their Pride in the Gayborhood, which I say folks are calling it Washington Square West. I did want to address some things because there was a panel that was here before me of city officials. And as a 42-year- old trans woman of color who came into my truth preteen, the Gayborhood was a place that we went after Pride because Pride was at Festival Pier that now was being gentrified or redeveloped to accommodate the new Philadelphians. And so, that was our place to go. And as a person who did not have access to go to the Festival Pier because of $30, $20 or the stigma around receiving a free ticket for a HIV test, me and my friends at a young age, we found our solace going to parks or going to the Gayborhood to fellowship with our peers. Now, as I sit here today in support of this investigation, I want to be transparent that any investigation without genuine intent towards true accountability and a restorative justice process that includes true oversight and effective implementation of recommendations is not justice. It is another publicity stunt. We must be willing to hold the Philadelphia Police Department accountable for escalating the situation. They had every opportunity to de-escalate. If not, this becomes another exercise and managing public perception rather than delivering public accountability. Communities have become far too familiar with reports that collect dust, while people harmed are expected to move on or just get over it. We are no 19 longer willing to accept this behavior. Safety is not a one-size-fits-all. Safety is very individualized. For some, the presence of police represents security. For others, that same presence often represents surveillance, intimidation, profiling and violence, as we saw in the videos on the day of question. These concerns about police choice of force, racism and profiling did not start on June 7th, which you heard from Chris and I'm sure you're hearing from my fellow panelist Jacen. It is a continuation of what we have spent years, even decades, telling the city about, the harm experienced by LGBTQ+ Philadelphians and our guests. These stem from discriminatory practices implemented by businesses to the overpolicing practices that disproportionately impact Black and Brown people, especially Black and Brown trans and queer folks. We have testified, we have organized and we have protested, and many of us continue to offer up our free labor and solutions to these problems. Now, the question from me is not whether the city heard us. The question is whether the city has really listened. As a transgender Philadelphian, I used to come to the Gayborhood to find community, as I shared earlier, to fellowship. And no matter what, I was met with discrimination. I have been banned from entry into clubs based on a perception that I was a sex worker. I have faced harassment by police just by walking down the street to get a slice of pizza, overpriced pizza from Homo Hut. And I really found peace in an area that I should have felt welcome to patronize or fellowship in. We had bike cops, they were called Ren and Stimpy at the time, following us as we walked. We had patrol cars demanding our PP Nos. or threatened to arrest us. And all this was because we were transgender and that I was a woman of color. After the death of my dear Auntie Nizah Morris, I drew the line in the sand. I said to myself, Naiymah, you are not safe here and find fellowship elsewhere.
There is a reason Philadelphia became the first city to add the Black and Brown stripes to the rainbow flag. It was an acknowledgment that racism exists within LGBTQ+ spaces and that our liberation is incomplete if it does not include all of us in those town halls. Leading up to the pivotal moment to introduce the more color, more Pride flag, we voiced our concerns about the racism in the Gayborhood, the excessive policing and practices by Philadelphia police. And I do recall concerns over the entities that are now claiming ownership of that Gayborhood through an association that, to me, is clear as welcoming to some and exclusionary to others. And so, the flag became more inclusive but that wasn't the destination. It was a commitment. These pivotal moments have lasting impacts on our lives, and the commitments we make must include all of us. Because as I shared earlier, safety is very individualized. We must acknowledge that nothing can happen for us without our involvement. When discussing accountability and restorative justice, it is crucial that these conversations include individuals who have suffered or are still suffering from the harm. Excluding people just because our efforts challenge longstanding systems that have operated without accountability undermines the purpose of justice. If our truth make institutions and entities uncomfortable, then perhaps the discomfort belongs with those entities who ignore our demands for dignity and respect. Let's not ignore history. Police in this country was birthed from systems designed to capture, control, and dehumanize people who were treated as property or those less deserving of care. That legacy continues to shape how many communities experience policing today. This is why I'm baffled that city leadership centers the police in the name of public safety, knowing that the historical context and leaving institutions like the police to design safety measures alone. Black and Brown queer and transgender Philadelphians and our visitors are not a threat to be contained. We are not a problem to be managed nor are we cattle to be herded as we seen with the horses. We are, however, neighbors, taxpayers, voters, constituents. We are artists, advocates, parents, students and definitely survivors. We deserve the same freedoms everyone else deserves to gather, to celebrate, to love, exist without the fear of these institutions paid to protect us. Now, I know we've been here for a minute so I want to wrap up my remarks with this. I ask this committee to investigate thoroughly this incident and demand expanding oversight that includes subpoena power for the Citizens Police Oversight Committee. I ask that we not exclude people from future conversations like what happened, because folks are passionate advocates labeled as radicals that make other folks uncomfortable with facing the realities. And please, Councilmember Landau, other Councilmembers and everybody watching, please don't let this hearing become another headline. Let it be a commitment to our collective goal of safety. I want us to choose accountability over the optics. Let's choose restorative justice over political convenience and choose people over policing. I want to thank you all for allowing me to share today. I yield to my fellow panelist Jacen or this body for questioning. )
Good afternoon, Legislative Oversight Committee, community members, Councilmember Brooks, thank you for staying, invited guests. My name is Jacen Bowman. I serve as the President of Philadelphia Black Pride and the Commissioner on Governor Josh Shapiro's Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. I stand before you because I love Philadelphia. I love our LGBTQ+ community and I believe this city can become a national example of what meaningful inclusion and equitable public safety look like. But that requires us to tell the truth. Today's hearing may be focused on Pride, but that conversation is about something much larger. It's about trust. It's about equal protection. It's about belonging. It's about whether Philadelphia's most recognizable LGBTQ+ Gayborhood truly serves the entire community it claims to represent. I want to be very clear what happened during Pride did not begin during Pride, and it did not end when those rainbow flags came down. Pride exposed concerns that Black and Brown LGBTQ+ Philadelphians have raised for years. While those disparities must be named directly, the harm does not stop with us. Aggressive and consistent and disrespectful policing damages the relationship between law enforcement and the broader community as well. That includes transgender and non-binary people, people with disabilities, young people, nightlife workers, residents, visitors and people experiencing homelessness, and anyone who enters that Gayborhood expecting to be treated with dignity. As the President of Philadelphia Black Pride, I've spent years listening to our community, standing in our community and experiencing this harm firsthand. These stories are remarkably consistent. Black and Brown LGBTQ+ people are watched differently. We are approached differently. We are policed differently. And too often, we are made to feel like visitors in a neighborhood that is promoted as the heart of Philadelphia's LGBTQ+ community. But even those who do not share our exact identities should be concerned. When officers are allowed to treat one group as inherently suspicious, that conduct eventually threatens the safety and civil rights of everyone. A policing culture that dehumanizes any part of the community makes the entire community feel less safe. This testimony though is deeply personal to me. Last year my chosen son Derwin Matthews was murdered during Pride weekend. That loss changed my life. When I returned to Pride this year, I did not return as the President of Philadelphia Black Gay Pride. I returned carrying grief. I returned hoping to experience some measure of healing in a community that meant so much to me. Instead I watched that joy turn into fear. I watched the celebration become divided by tension. I watched interactions that raised serious concerns about dignity, restraint and whether everybody present was being treated as an individual or whether an entire crowd was being treated as a threat. I understand the incidents occurred that law enforcement had the responsibility to respond to. Public safety matters. No one's asking the police department to ignore fighting violence or unlawful behavior. But the issue isn't whether officers have a job to do. The issue is whether the job is being done equally, respectfully, without treating an entire community inherently suspicious. I've heard officers say comments that have stuck with me. I heard officers say they were covering their faces because they didn't want to be recognized for being in the Gayborhood. I heard statements to the effect of, I don't want to be down here with these F bombs. I don't want to see anybody seeing me dealing with these gay people. As an openly Black gay man and the President of Philadelphia Black Pride, it is difficult to describe what it feels like to hear members of your community disgusted that way by people who are assigned to protect you. Those comments do not make us feel protected. They make us feel othered.
It also raises a larger concern for every Philadelphian. If an officer can openly express contempt for the people they are assigned to serve, how can any community trust that bias will not influence the officer's judgment. This is simply not a story about what happened over Pride Weekend. Over this past weekend, I had another interaction with a police officer in the Gayborhood that I experienced unnecessary, aggressive and inappropriate and disrespectful behavior from a cop. I've contacted police leadership, and I intend to continue the Internal Affairs process and pursue a formal complaint. I know how to navigate systems. I know who to call. I know how to document what happened and advocate for myself. But I cannot stop thinking about the people that do not know how to do that. How many people have been treated this way and never filed a complaint because they did not know how? How many people believed nothing would happen? How many feared their reporting an officer will only expose them to further disrespect or retaliation? My position and relationships may have prevented that encounter from becoming much worse. But a person should not need a title, political relationships or recognition as a community leader to receive basic dignity. Your rights should not depend on who you are or who you know and what title you have. We must also discuss what unequal enforcement looks like in the neighborhood that we are now marketing as Midtown Village. We've all seen fighting, extreme intoxication and disruptive behavior and serious public safety concerns outside of other bars and clubs in the same area. We've seen crowds and incidents outside of McGillin's. We've seen incidents outside of U-Bahn. We've seen behavior outside of venues who patrons are not predominantly Black or Brown or LGBTQ+ can be just as disruptive and sometimes more violent. But what occurs outside those venues the communities attend? The police response does not appear to look the same. We are not consistently seeing officers surrounding those establishments throughout the night. We do not see people leaving those venues treated as if they are potentially dangerous. We do not see the same presumption that an entire crowd is a problem because of the conduct of a few individuals. So I have to ask a serious question. Is public safety only urgent when Black and Brown people gather? Are the safety of patrons, employees and residents of McGillin's, U-Bahn and other Midtown Village venues also not a priority? Public safety must apply to the entire Gayborhood, but equal public safety also requires equal enforcement. It cannot mean protection for one group, tolerance for another and containment for the rest. When similar behavior receive different policing response depending on who is gathered outside, the issue is no longer public safety. The issue is unequal enforcement. Black and Brown LGBTQ+ people experience the sharpest edge of that disparity, but the consequences reach far beyond us. Residents lose trust. Business owners lose confidence. Nightlife workers are placed in tense situations and community members needing police assistance become less willing to call for help. And most importantly, the City of Philadelphia is supposed to be the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. Our visitors question whether they feel safe. Philadelphia cannot celebrate LGBTQ+ people in June and treat us like a public safety problem for the rest of the year. At the same time, Philadelphia cannot allow any resident, worker or visitor to be subjected to disrespectful policing simply because we are standing in a certain neighborhood or entering a gathering in a certain community. Following Pride, I appreciated the opportunity to speak with Mayor Parker's Administration, Police Commissioner Bethel, and I believe those conversations were sincere. Especially when I speak on the entire community, it does not appear that the Parker Administration cares much about the LGBTQ+ community.
I repeat, a meeting is not accountability. A promise is not a policy. A concern without consequences will not change conduct. )
I understand that personnel and disciplinary matters cannot always be discussed publicly, but the public should be informed when a complaint has been investigated or the policies were violated and whether corrective action has been taken place to prevent similar conduct. Confidentiality should protect a fair process. It should not become a blanket excuse for silence. Accountability that the public can never see begins to feel impossible to tell apart from inaction. So today we are asking City Council to move beyond conversations that require meaningful action. First, require an independent action review of the policing of Pride. That review must examine deployment decisions, command structures, offer conduct de-escalation practices, body- camera footage complaint and whether enforcement was applied equitably. Black and Brown LGBTQ+ organizers, transgender and non-binary leaders, disability advocates, residents, nightlife workers and beyond must be full participants and not invited after the conclusions have already been written. Second, a permanent LGBTQ+ Public Safety and Equity Advisory Council with a formal role in planning before and after all major events in the City of Philadelphia. Include Philadelphia Black Pride, Philly Pride 365, transgender and non-binary leaders, nightlife employees, businesses, the police department, the Mayor's office, the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, disability advocates and civil rights organizations. Third, require a collection of public reporting data on police deployments and interactions throughout the Gayborhood and Midtown Village. That should include stops, citations, arrests, use-of-force complaints, deployment levels and locations where these interactions occurred. The information should be disaggregated by race, gender identity and other relevant demographics while protecting individual privacy. The city should also compare police responses outside different establishments and determine whether similar conduct received similar enforcement. We cannot correct disparities if the city refuses to measure. Fourth, require a meaningful LGBTQ+ cultural competency, anti-bias and de-escalation training for every officer assigned to this neighborhood. Training cannot be a box that officers check off during their onboarding and forget. Supervisors must also be held accountable for the conduct they witness, encourage and permit. Any officer credibly accused of expressing anti-LGBTQ+ bias should be removed immediately. Fifth, require a written implementation plan with clear deadlines of public process before the next Pride celebration. We recognize that some of what I'm saying sounds mighty familiar, because versions of these structures already exist. Philadelphia already has meetings. Philadelphia already has trainings. Philadelphia already has advisory boards. Philadelphia already has citizen police oversight. But these structures are not being utilized correctly. The problem is not again whether the structures exist. The question is whether or not the structure has the authority, independence or enforcement power necessary to produce accountability. Oversight without authority is observation. An oversight body can receive complaints, it can review investigations, it can issue reports and recommendations, but its findings can be ignored when we cannot independently impose consequences when the public cannot see how those recommendations are being addressed and communities are left questioning whether the process designed to deliver accountability or simply manage public frustration. This is why I'm not asking City Council to create another group that can meet and discuss and recommend. We are asking City Council to strengthen the authority of these structures we already have. Require written public responses to their findings. Establish consequences when the recommendations are repeatedly ignored. The Gayborhood is more than a collection of streets, bars and businesses.
It's a symbol that's supposed to represent safety, freedom and belonging. But rainbow flags are not proof of equity. Equity is measured by how people are treated beneath those flags. Again last year, I buried my chosen son. This year I watched too many people leave Pride carrying fear instead of joy. And over this past weekend, I was reminded once again that these concerns did not disappear when Pride ended. Next year I hope that our community will leave Pride with something different. I want Black and Brown LGBTQ+ people to feel protected rather than targeted. I want transgender and nonbinary people to feel respected rather than profiled. I want residents, workers, visitors, businesses and owners to trust that public safety applies equally to them. And I want every person that enters this neighborhood to know that their identity, race, income, appearance or choice of venue will not determine the level of dignity they receive. Pride should not be measured by how many rainbow flags Philadelphia hang. It should be measured by whether every person walking beneath those flags can celebrate, breathe and return home safely. Thank you. )
Thank you so much and thank you to you for your collective and very thoughtful recommendations. I think they will go a long way. I don't have any questions for this panel. You pretty much summed it up perfectly. Does anybody else have any questions? (No response.)
It was wonderful. Thank you. And if you have any other comments please.
Because Jacen said something that is really important is the continuous implementation of training, right. But it has to go beyond the Gayborhood because LGBTQ+ people don't just exist on 13th Street. I live in Germantown. I know folks that live in West Philly, the Northeast. And so, this needs to be a departmental or institutional implementation. The Office of LGBT Affairs has an obligation to see LGBTQ+ Philadelphians and they must be allowed to do the job in which they are tasked to do, right. And so, this has to continue, not just in the Gayborhood, right, but throughout the city because we exist everywhere. That's the reason why Pride was taken out of the Gayborhood because we exist outside of the Gayborhood. And so, I yield back. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you all very much. Appreciate you and all of the leadership that you give us every day, especially for our community. Ms. Hartman, can you -- one second. We are now moving to public comment. Ms. Hartman, will you please call the first person making public comment or a few people, if you would like, who we have to testify this afternoon on the resolution before us today.
We ask that you please keep your comments to no 15 longer than two minutes. Jazmyn Henderson and then it will be Jasper Liam and C. Michael Robinson. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
My name is Jazmyn Henderson. I use she/her pronouns. Let me just say the fact that the public only gets two minutes to speak while we just sat here for almost two hours listening to the cops tell us a bunch of garbage ain't right, first of all. And let's talk about the fact that there's one thing that we seem to be dancing around and Councilmember Thomas tried to get to it without saying it. And it was that when you look at those videos, the violence you've seen was all perpetrated on Black bodies, which is what it always is when it comes to this city or to policing period. Until we remove the racist components of what policing has always been in this country, we're going to continue to see this. We don't need police. We need public safety officers. We need law enforcement. We don't need people who use words like when they descended on the Gayborhood. We didn't descend. We went there because that's where our community was gathering, right. We don't need to be contained. We didn't need to be controlled. And this wasn't some thing that they just decided to do at the last second. Those barricades was out days before. They spread them out that day. The police have been setting up shop on Camac Street every weekend since this year has started and they harassed Black and Brown bodies every weekend because the neighbors there who just moved there want to change the culture and don't want us to congregate where we've been congregating. So this isn't something new like Jacen said. This is something that's been happening and they've been planning and rolling this out for a minute. What happened on Pride was just ridiculous. There is absolutely no excuse for it. You can't tell me that they thought at any given point in time they're putting bikes on the sidewalks was okay, that those horses was okay. And they purposely, let me just say, tried to kettle us to where the violence was. Because I was down on 12th Street and I tried to go to my car that was parked on Race Street, and they tried to push me to 13th where they were doing the violence to people. I had nothing to do with any of that violent confrontation. But the fact that they tried to put me there is a problem, right. And then they want you to go this way, that way, this way, that way. Finally, I just told them I'm climbing a barricade and dared them to stop me. But even then why when people are trying to leave, are you holding them hostage. And then you say things like we got to contain you or you descended there. Ultimately, the Gayborhood should have been shut down to cars on that day like it normally is, whether the festival was there or not. Because unbeknownst to the Commissioner, there were live bands on Camac Street, there were DJs on Camac Street, 13th Street was shut down so that Woody's could have a foam party, right. But when it came time for the juveniles -- and I'm 50 years old, I'll be damned if I'm a juvenile. But I was sure out there with everybody else, right. This wasn't this. Don't believe that this was just young kids. No, this was everybody from every age category who refused to pay the money that the Pride on the Parkway was costing. That's what happened there. And they knew that was going to happen because it was all over social media. They just chose this because they want to make us afraid, Black and Brown people particularly, to be afraid to hang out in the Gayborhood on the street. And it's -- I mean, I have no faith that this hearing is going to do anything. I believe that come next -- because what we heard from the Commissioner again was a budget proposal. It cost this much money for us to do this, so we're going to need more money next year. They continually want more money and they're being paid and then they are abusing the citizens. This was never about public safety. This was about protecting property. And the sooner we realize that and we change these things around, the better off it's going to be.
Please state your name for the record and your pronouns.
Let's change this to good afternoon, Councilmembers. Thank you for convening this hearing. My name is Jasper Liam. I use he/him pronouns interchangeably and I am a proud transgender Philadelphian. I grew up in Philadelphia's LGBTQ community. And today I have the privilege of serving as the Executive Director at the Attic Youth Center, where every day LGBTQ young people find safety, support and opportunity. I'm here because what happened following Pride that evening was not simply an unfortunate night. It was a failure of leadership, a failure of planning and it revealed a standard of policing that Philadelphia should no longer accept. And I want to point out that that area has been the Gayborhood since Tavern on Camac opened its doors before 1930. What I witnessed today is grown professionals blaming young people for their failure to plan and manage a community event. What I heard was this city doesn't know how to create safe and structured spaces for young adults. And I want to clarify that juveniles might be under 18. But on the list that Commissioner Bethell shared with us in his PowerPoint, of the 20 arrests, two of them were under 18. Seven of those 20 are over the age of 25. So we need to make up our mind. Are we blaming teenagers for fighting or are we arresting transitional-age adults? And as someone who has grown up in this community, I can tell you that the fear and anger that we feel is not new. And I fear that it's not going to change much. The overpolicing of LGBTQ people in Philadelphia is not new at all. The distrust between our community and law enforcement is not new, and our community remembers Stonewall/Dewey's lunch counter. I remember the '90s and early 2000s during my coming-out era when hanging out with young Black and Brown folks in the Gayborhood meant routinely being stopped, harassed, arrested on summary offenses or I suppose the early version of stop-and-frisk, so much so that we called it walking while Black in the Gayborhood. Obviously not for me, but we called it that as a community. That is how prevalent it was. That history taught us to rely on one another, to build chosen family and our own informal community systems. It taught us not to assume that institutions would protect us simply because they were supposed to. Our community learned from that history. What happened after Pride demonstrated that the city and Philadelphia police have still not learned enough from our history. That should concern every member of the Council. To understand why this matters, you have to understand what Pride means, especially for transitional-age youth, by which I mean under and young adults. 24 For many, its coming-of-age moment. It's when we step into a community and find chosen family. It's when we realize that we're not alone. It's that we are not just understood, but accepted. And what I saw that evening was that we also cannot rely on others to be protected. The Gayborhood is not an entertainment district. When I came out, bars still had windows blacked out and minimal signage to protect patrons from being outed by walking through their doors. The Gayborhood was one of the most historically significant LGBTQ neighborhoods in the country. What unfolded after Pride was reactive, fragmented and not a coherent public safety strategy. The decision to keep vehicle traffic moving when they did, while compressing thousands of people into tighter spaces created unnecessary risk. It is my understanding, and also heard again earlier today that creating the audible arc of a taser as a show of force is permissible under current policy. I understand maybe that's changed in the past couple months, but permissible doesn't mean effective. Intimidation is not de-escalation. However, it seems to be a preferred method. When people are already crowded into limited space, introducing additional fear increases the potential for chaos rather than reducing it. This all was preventable.
The actions and the reactions that happened that evening were all preventable. And I will be the first to say, and I don't usually like to, but we told you so. I know that folks in the community had these meetings with the city, with the police department, and all of this was preventable. So let me be clear, that as someone who's also had conversations with folks in the police department, including leadership, too often those conversations have focused on how organizations like the Attic and any other youth-serving organization should serve as some kind of recruitment space rather than how the department can better understand and serve LGBTQ youth and young adults. The Attic Youth Center will not serve as a recruiting ground for the police department, period. That is not our mission. If an individual young person chooses that path, we will support that young person in pursuing their future and help them make their own decisions. But we are here to create opportunities for young people and not to strengthen systems that continue to lose and break our trust. This hearing should not be about whether individuals intended harm. It should be about the standards we accept. Two months later after all of this, we have not heard a clear answer on whether officers who were masked. I hear there's eight or nine of them that were identified. We haven't even heard whether our own department knows who those individuals and officers were. We have heard that there is a process. We haven't heard whether that process has been started for those individuals. And we have not heard anything about whether those individuals are still in active duty. We have not heard anything other than, oh, when it's done, it will be buried on this website. As a Philadelphian, I'm concerned that our own police department can't close an internal investigation within two months. Our silence doesn't protect us. We know that slogan. Your silence is not accountability. Accepting responsibility and demonstrating through action that lessons have been learned, that is accountability. Our community has already done the hard work of learning from history. It's time for our institutions to do the same. This city has repeatedly denied the Attic Youth Center funding that could have had us into our new building, that could have had programming and a space for these young adults. And we don't, we do not have that. Now is the time for our institutions to step up. If we refuse to learn from our history, we are not simply repeating it. We are choosing it. Our community deserves better, our young people deserve better and the city can do better. That is why this hearing matters. Hearings create accountability. But accountability demands action, and action is what creates change. So the Attic Youth Center stands with all of our LGBTQ community, especially our youth and young adults. We support them as they grow into community-oriented, independent adults. And I wish there were more of them in this city. Thank you. )
Thank you. Very quickly before you proceed, I'm clearly doing a very bad job of sticking to a two-minute timeline because I'm holding on to I love public comment, I hold on to every word. I'm going to pass this responsibility up to the Clerk who's going to have a buzzer and just try to remind you. I'm sorry. There's a lot of people who want to speak. Thank you. Please proceed. State your name and your pronouns and proceed.
C. Michael Robinson, he/they, Wynnefield. Before I begin, I want to state for the record that only adult bullies scapegoat children. And that was a weak display of leadership. And perhaps you need to go back to the books if that's the experience that you bring to public service. Sometimes it is not enough to be the voice for the voiceless. Sometimes victims of violence, particularly state- sponsored violence, should be given audience in the so-called people's house and speak to their own traumas. Alas, Councilors, we live in an era of risk adversity, and a city would never condone that sort of forthrightness. In 1693, your predecessors passed an ordinance 12 that prohibited enslaved and free Philadelphians from gathering in Washington Square, colloquially known at that time as Congo Square. So shall we stop dancing around the issue here? That patrol car that's posted in the last section of the Gayborhood where Black bodies do freely assemble is no coincidence. Neither are the surveillance cameras that connect directly to the DVIC fusion center. No, I'm not talking about Circa 1960s Jim Crow Philadelphia. I'm talking about last weekend on Camac and Locust. It takes coordination, coordination between institutions and agencies and coordination by individuals who are likely in this room participating in this very hearing. Yet we talk a good game about constitutional rights. I fear for us, some of us who may descend from those very enslaved Freedmen who congregated in Congo Square, which is known as Washington Square Park again and is an African burial ground, Washington Square Park, an area that is immensely represented by non-Black LGBTQ leaders with an authority to ensure our safety or not. Perhaps it's time for Black queer people to divest from the Gayborhood. Here's a novel idea: How about we just go back into the closet. After all, the last Black-owned Gayborhood bar was closed several years ago, and the concentration of Black queer spaces that existed in mid-century West Philadelphia shuttered just around the time the Gayborhood switched over from the Rittenhouse Square area. Black queer people deserve safe spaces in their own neighborhoods like we did in the first half of the 20th century. And so, here's the question that begs to be answered: Is any Black Philadelphian entitled to an existence free from surveillance, censorship, and profiling? Notice I said any Black Philadelphian, not just LGBTQ ones. Any political scientist worth their degree would have recognized that it would occurred at Pride was a drill, a warning. And we Black folks have been here before. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you so much for your comments. Ms. Hartman, can you please call the next few witnesses, public commenters.
Asa Khalif and then next, Grace Hewitt and Em Bennett. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good to see you. Hello, Councilpeople. I know we are enforcing the two-minute rule, but we've heard a lot of people say a lot of things and gave up a lot of time. I'm asking for you to give us a few minutes if we go a little over just to give us some grace, because this is so important to hear from community members and leaders and those who are putting their bodies on the line for our community and it's well worth it. Okay. Thank you so much if you can. First and foremost, good morning or good afternoon everyone. My name is Asa Khalif. I am an activist, organizer in the Black Lives Matter Movement. I am a proud, queer Black man here in this community, an advocate in this community as well. And I would like to thank a dear friend, a warrior, Councilmember Rue Landau, for having the courage to speak truth to power and use her platform to get to the truth and hold those accountable. Also, Pride was a riot and no (inaudible) at Pride. I had an opportunity to meet one of the victims who's now a survivor on the terrible fiasco that took place after Pride on June 7th. Her name is Mia. We'll call her Mia. An 18-year-old who has the most incredible courage and beautiful spirit, who did not have that much courage to come today, but trusted me, along with her permission of her parents to speak in her words. And these will be her words that I speak. Nothing will be added or subtracted. Good morning. My name is Mia. I'm years old. I 14 identify as lesbian and my pronouns 15 are she/her. My first Pride was 16 nothing like I imagined. Instead 17 of fun and celebration with my 18 friends, the police turned joy into fear and abuse. I can't put into words the fear that I experienced on June 7th. As much as I try, I guess you just had to be there. The police pushing, arresting, pulling out their tasers, pointing at me and my friends. It was horrible. All I wanted to do was dance and celebrate Pride in the Gayborhood. I won't be back in the Gayborhood. I don't feel safe around the police. Maybe one day I'll try again. I don't know, maybe. Mia. And I would like to add, I would like to remind the Philadelphia police and particularly when you're dealing with Black and Brown and trans people in the Gayborhood, which has never been a safe place for any of us, I want to remind you, just because you put your uniform on doesn't mean you take your humanity off. Thank you again, Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you. Please state your name. Whoever's next, please state your name and your pronouns for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Hi. My name is Grace Hewitt, she/her. I'd like to thank the Council, the community and all of the uniformed police officers who have been on their phones all morning. On Sunday, June 7th, I attended a Pride-related event at Frankie Bradley's in the Gayborhood. During this time, I witnessed several instances of police intimidation and violence against attendees, Pride celebrants and the general public in an alleyway between Chancellor Street and Locust Street. At least a dozen officers marched in a line and began yelling at attendants, two of whom were having medical emergencies related to the excessive heat. The officers demanded that the two attendees move with no reason, given there was no street blockage or safety concerns. One of these attendees included a young woman who had recently gained consciousness after fainting. These officers yelled at them, offering medical assistance, but never once actually provided any help. During my time outside the venue, I witnessed officers attempt to physically and verbally intimidate attendees who were there to celebrate their community. Again, when you say that there's nothing in the Gayborhood, we were there. As for a paid event, as attendees in the Gayborhood to celebrate, they interrogated people up and down the street, demanding people leave and mocked the Pride flags and signage. It was clear from their first moment on the street that they were not there to protect or serve anyone. Many of us want to celebrate Pride safely while supporting queer-owned businesses. I've attended Pride in Philadelphia for the past three years and I still cannot understand why the city has not figured out how to keep the community safe after so many Pride events. The police have never been an ally to this community. The police have never made my community feel safer. If you guys aren't ready to change, we can go back to picking up pennies and bricks from the police today. All I've heard are excuses. You're here to explain yourselves and give excuses and show these illegible slides, but not apologize to the community. You bring up safety with vehicle ramming attacks, but your officers are the ones using their vehicles as weapons against civilians, many of whom were minors. You list terror events, but your force became the terror that day to people. It was not a perfect day. Yeah, that was clear to everyone there that it was not a perfect day. And I really think that you owe everyone here and everyone who was there an apology for how the police behaved. I'm really not excited to hear more excuses and I really don't have trust that anything is going to get better after everything I've heard today from the Commissioner. But I really want to thank everyone here for their time. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you. Please state your name and your pronouns and proceed.
My name is Em Bennett. I use they/them pronouns and I am a queer activist of South Philly. Before I speak on my Pride experience, I would like us to reflect on a quote from Philly journalist Mark Segal describing the conditions of Christopher Street before Stonewall. The police ruled Christopher Street. They harassed us nightly in our own neighborhood. Their message was simple: You people are not allowed to gather. You are not allowed to be visible. You are not allowed to exist together. When I left the bar the night of June 7th, the bubble of exuberance I felt with my community burst quickly as I noticed menacing officers in masks wielding their batons as playthings. It became a pit of fear as I realized my friend and I were kettled with no place to go, fear that turned into despair as I heard yelling, tasers being deployed against my community. We were trapped and things were horribly wrong. When I asked an officer where we were supposed to go, he said, I can't tell you. I'm just doing my job. Processing what happened to my community that night, I am incensed. Police Commissioner Bethel, you have failed the community you swore to serve. It has become clear you see us not as humans, but as a nuisance to be controlled. Your use of fear and surveillance on the queer community showed complete ignorance of our history and values. We cannot thrive because you do not believe in our right to be visible, to exist together. Not even on our most sacred of days are we safe in your care. Police Commissioner Bethel, I implore you to resign from your position. Err you repeat the history that brought us here. And I would also like to point out that one of the videos was claimed to be the 1200 block of Walnut is actually 1625 Chestnut Street, the Shops at Liberty. Nowhere near the Pride celebrations. Thank you. I yield my time. (Applause.)
Ms. Hartman, can you please call the next witnesses.
Madison Gray. Then Lindsay Gottschall and Daniel Guy. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Thank you. Please, whoever wants to start, state your name, your pronouns and please proceed with your testimony.
Hi. My name is Madison Gray. My pronouns are she/her. I have been a resident of Philadelphia for more than ten years now. I attended many Pride celebrations and also other celebrations, Eagle celebrations, Erin Express, all types of street parties that have been a little rowdy and I have never, ever seen anything like what I experienced on June 7th. On June 7th, we walked out of our friend's apartment building, which was on Walnut Street between 12th and 13th. Once you're on that intersection, there are four different ways you could potentially leave. We were heading to dinner. The intersection of 12th and Walnut was shut down with barricades. The intersection at 13th and Walnut was shut down with barricades, both with dozens of cops, you know, maybe even 50-plus cops at each intersection. There's two other ways, right. There's an alleyway down Camac Street and then there's a courtyard where you can go north. Both of those were also shut down with cops blocking the exits. We had no way to leave the area. At this point, we were just going to dinner, which is our right to do so. We talked to the police and asked them why they were shutting it down. We were told no 18 explanation of why they were shutting it down. And we began to see police officers with masks, horses, paddy wagons. To be honest, it was unlike anything I've experienced outside of legal observing. I'm a lawyer and I do legal observing at protests, and I'm talking about legal observing at some of the most intense protests in 2020, like after Walter Wallace was murdered in West Philly, where we know we also saw their police kettling people. But that was in a protest situation. And this was in a situation where there was no resistance. There was no explanation for why they were behaving the way that they were. And I mean, I immediately recognized it as kettling. The only way we were able to get out eventually was because one officer just decided that he would let us out of there, which we were a group of predominantly White people, so I don't know that everyone would have been afforded the same privilege. While we were there, we saw two young girls trying to get to their car so they could leave. I think they had been celebrating Pride in the city and were just driving home. They were followed into their car by a group of officers who began slamming on the windows of the car and yelling at them to the point that these girls were crying. And they weren't able to leave. They were stuck in their car and they just had -- I don't even know when they were able to leave the situation. When we asked the police officer what we should do, they told us to just go back inside as if we don't have the right to walk around the Gayborhood on Pride Sunday. In conclusion, this was an experience unlike any other. And thank you for holding a hearing on this. And I really hope that we can see some real accountability and change from this.
Hi. My name is Lindsay. I use she/her pronouns. I've lived in Philly my whole life and I love this city and the community. I've been going to Pride events since I was in college at Temple. So I'm grateful to be here to share my experience. On June 7th, around 5:00 p.m. I was, you know, with Maddie at points. I exited my friend's apartment on Walnut Street. I was immediately met with multiple cops standing there telling me to move. I calmly asked, why do we need to get off the sidewalk. And I was told, by this officer, "You guys just need to move because those guys back there will have no mercy on you." That is a direct quote. I looked up and I see coming down Walnut rows and rows of cops revving their engines with their helmets on. I mean, it was like a mob of cops. I'm being told to get off the sidewalk. I can't go in the street. So we were essentially pushed into a side alleyway with everyone from Walnut Street. I watched a young woman intoxicated but engaging with the cops. And instead of escalating the situation, I watched him literally pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and walk her down the end of the alleyway. That is not de-escalation in my opinion. That is physical force. Let alone the no-mercy comment. You can assume what was meant by that. Cops are just slowly coming over. We're not allowed to leave. I mean, the sheer number of cops there was alarming. I'm still not quite sure what the shift was to necessitate that. All I saw was people hanging out, singing with music that was there and having fun with their community. It was pretty impossible to even get out of this alleyway that we're all trapped in now, like we're a bunch of herded animals. Even walking to the Pride event, all I see is cops just staring and laughing like it's a bunch of puppets essentially. To what Maddie said too, I have also attended a lot of events in the city, Eagles, Mummers, Erin Express. When I've seen people climbing street signs and trash cans and the cops, don't even bat an eye. But when it involves queer or Brown and Black people, it's an issue. So we need to change the narrative. It doesn't make any sense. Thank you. (Applause.)
Hello, City Council. I'm Danny Guy, they/them pronouns. I work at CPOC, but I'm here today speaking in my capacity as a resident and a Pride attendee since 2009. These words are my personal experience, not an official position of CPOC. I want to underscore the city's lack of planning at this year's Pride. Until the pandemic, Pride was held in Penn's Landing and people came throughout the day to celebrate in the Gayborhood. This is not new. Why was the city not better prepared for people to be celebrating in the Gayborhood? My personal experience was attempting to get back to our friend's hotel on Locust Street post street clearing. We interacted with two officers at different intersections who were unhelpful and could not provide a clear route back to the hotel. We were finally allowed to pass after my friend pleaded with a third officer. This was a privileged experience. We were a group of three White cis-presenting men, but no officer had a clear answer. No one would tell us when Locust would be open. Why did it take us pleading to get back to a hotel, my friend's home, for that night. Compared to what we all saw today, mine was a low-level complaint. But what it highlights is the lack of planning and communication from police and city leadership. As I said back here in June, it seems that we can plan quickly to welcome rowdy Eagles fans to take over Broad Street directly after a Super Bowl win, and we don't seem concerned when they're climbing street poles. So why didn't the city anticipate queer people celebrating in the Gayborhood on Pride. It only exacerbates how our community feels disregarded and dehumanized in a hostile, political climate. We deserve to be treated humanely like our straight counterparts, given equal moments of joy and celebration. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you all so much. Ms. Hartman, can you call the next few public commenters.
Lindsay McCormick, Nurya Abdullah, Taron Barkley. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name and your pronouns and proceed with your testimony. MS. McCORMICK: Hi. My name is Lindsay McCormick. My pronouns are she/her. And I've attended Philadelphia Pride every year since 2013 when I moved to Philadelphia. And every year it seems like police presence increases and intensifies. After what I witnessed this year, I'm scared what will happen in the future if this pattern continues. Around 5:30 p.m., I was waiting for my friend outside their apartment on Walnut. Within 15 minutes of me waiting, everyone on Walnut was kettled onto Camac Street and not allowed to leave. I saw a person being held up by two friends because they were not well enough to walk. They were not allowed to exit. Even though it was clear this person needed medical attention, it felt like the police kettled us to instigate and escalate. They were not there for our safety. It also was not lost on me that a couple days after Pride, there was a promotion for open streets in Midtown Village, which I guess is what we're calling the Gayborhood now. With the aggressive police presence and the promotion of open streets in Midtown Village, not the Gayborhood, it makes me ask who is allowed to exit and exist in Philadelphia. It feels like the city is trying to intimidate queer existence and erase LGBT history. Thank you. (Applause.)
Hello. Good afternoon. Thank you for the time. My name is Taron Barkley. I use he/him pronouns. This has been an interesting day. Everything I've heard here has made no sense. I'm honestly so confused. But just to highlight a few things, because I'm solution-based and we've heard nothing but just comments today. The only reason why we're here is because it wasn't just queer people. It wasn't just LGBTQ people. This was Black and Brown people that were policed and corralled and have been policed and corralled in the city nightly since then. If it had not been for my video where I painted the picture of what it felt like to me there -- I'm 31 years old, I came out when I was 16. I've been coming downtown after school, we would walk from St. Joe's Prep, that's where I went, my alma mater, and we would walk down here and I would be in the city. So it's not about just queer people. It's not just about -- and I've heard other people say it's never been a safe space. I've never also encountered that either. The Gayborhood is a living, breathing space daily, nightly. So it's not about there not being anything to do and it's not about there being children downtown. You guys needing to police kids, that's known. Everyone knows that. But we're not going to blame the children being downtown for you coming downtown and policing us from going to the bars and specifically Black people. Because since that night, every day except for Latin night, might I add, because that was last night and I went just to see, you're down there. So I don't want to hear about it being kids. And also too, it's like what Pride is and the Gayborhood is bars. So if you're not years old, you shouldn't be in the Gayborhood. Blocking the streets off is something new. We never got that, but it's like there for 7 and up. So if you're not 21, you 8 got to go home. And if you guys 9 can't figure that out, then it's 10 not our job to figure that out. 11 And I feel like we're 12 being -- we've lost the plot here, 13 right. Like, are you going to keep 14 coming downtown and ruining the 15 space that lives and breathes daily 16 or is it about, you know, LGBTQ 17 bodies? Or are we going to 18 actually put the light on where it 19 needs to be? Thank you so much and 20 have a great day. 21 (Applause.)
Thank you very much. Ms. Hartman, can you please call the next few witnesses.
Mia Rivera, Christiana Lewis, Mark Roberts. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. You're the first sitting. If you'd like to state your name and your pronouns and proceed with your testimony.
My name is Mark Roberts. I use he/him. My wife and I are 20-year-plus residents of the Gayborhood. We have always felt welcomed and safe there. I'm an officer of Neighbors Across Market RCO and a member of the Neighborhood Alliance of Washington Square West as well as of course the Civic Association. I'm speaking out today against the police response in our neighborhood for our LGBTQ and straight neighbors because it's not really acceptable to have mass police terrorizing our citizens. Trump and ICE goons are trying very hard to make that an acceptable daily practice and every one of us has to say, no, you won't. It is obviously a relief that no one died on June 7th. But we all know that's an easy option for our overmilitarized local police departments among unarmed citizens. I'm glad Commissioner Bethel did confirm that masks are not a part of PPD's uniforms. I'm retired. But when I worked for many for several years, had more than a passing relationship with law enforcement. I've always been impressed by law enforcement's ability to de-escalate the tense situations. When those responsible for keeping the peace don't, we end up in a worse place. And this was really only partiers. What will go down with flash mobs looking for trouble, machine guns, bazookas. We can laugh, but facing this seriously now and doing the right thing now protects us all into the future. Thank you for listening to my testimony. (Applause.)
Hi. My name is Christiana, she/they pronouns. When I attended Philadelphia Pride, I didn't expect to leave with trauma and pain. As a 23-year-old queer woman, I've never experienced police brutality before. But the truth is this is a norm for our community, especially our Black, trans, queer and non-binary community. A police officer charged at me with their horse, forcing me into open traffic, proclaiming clear the corners or we'll charge at you. The claim the chief made that the horses were just performing a trot does not understand the control the rider has over the horse. The rider decides the path the horse takes. Several officers had full face coverings. I witnessed a woman officer threatening the community with a taser. The chief's solution is to arc your tasers. So now we won't know if we're getting tased next. It is clear to me that our police department is corrupt, systemically racist, homophobic and needs change now. This is even more clear by all the excuses the police chief made with his presentation. Intention doesn't matter. Impact does. The city wanted to profit off of the community by charging for Pride on the Parkway, but couldn't protect us against our own public servants. If there's dozens of free Pride events in the Gayborhood, which I attended and where Pride has been for many years, common sense would tell you to close off the streets. They closed off the roads and sidewalks with a barrier herding us like cattle. Why didn't we block off the road for the people to walk on it if it wasn't even open for cars? Let me be clear. I was not the target of this brutality. The target is and always has been our Black, Brown and trans non-binary community. I'm not here to mansplain to the LGBTQ community. I'm here for so my voice reaches the privileged ears that have refused to listen to us before. This is what systemic racism and deep-rooted homophobia looks like in Philadelphia. And as our public servants, it is your duty to make sure this never happens again. Thank you. ) MS. McCORMICK: Hi. My name is Mia, she/her, YouTuber MiaRTV. In the worst way possible, the history of Pride has come full circle as an ally. I listened carefully to the Police Commissioner's response. He said, I'm not making excuses, but that's all we heard. Pointing to a small number of official police reports does not erase what happened. Many videos that we saw today capture these incidents, but people may be too afraid to file a police report after experiencing the abuse from the very department that we're expected to report to. A sergeant has contacted me regarding an interview from my official complaint. And if I'm being honest with everyone, I don't know if I can bring myself to show up. I'm still scared and traumatized by what happened to the point where being in the same room 5 as an officer feels horrifying. It's also stated that mounted officers are used to intimidate. That admission alone should concern everyone in this room. Intimidation has no place for an event where he said he's here to protect safety and promote safety. We are not young kids fighting in the street. I should not fear being nearly trampled by a horse because a blurred video of children fighting triggered police to abuse us. We were also compared to the FIFA crowds and told they were compliant. We weren't that. The countless videos of their chaos tells a different story. Yet they weren't brutalized. It sounds like the police officers are the ones compliant and silent towards each others abuse of civilians. Our tax dollars should not fund officers who discriminate. If bias training, emotional regulation and de-escalation are not preventing this, then accountability must follow. Fire them. How have we learned nothing from 2020? We are not progressing or regressing. Pride should be a celebration, not another reminder of why this movement began in the first place. And finally, using police horses needs to go. They deserve to be free, just like we do.
And just like us, these horses are controlled and placed in situations they did not choose. They are animals, not public servants like you police. They should never be used as tools of intimidation against the people they don't get to choose to police. Thank you. )
Thank you all so much. Ms. Hartman, can you call the next few public testimony please.
Christian Orr, Brett Bender, James Bridgeforth. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
My name is Christian Orr. I use he/they pronouns. And on June 7, 2026, at the Pride Festival I was assaulted by a police officer on Chancellor Street. At around 7:00 p.m. as I was attempting to go around the bike rack barricade and get home, officers on foot and on dirt bikes pushing back the line of attendees, I was pushed by Police Officer Diore, as I believe it is pronounced, no less than five times. One of those times I was pushed to the ground resulting in a scraped and bloodied knee, hip and hand, I do have pictures. While I am saddened and disappointed by this and other officers actions on that day, I am not at all surprised as this historically has been how police engage with our community. And as a side note, I do attend many other community events in the city, whether that's the Mummers Parade or the St. Patty's Day Parade and on many occasions with my left eye, I witness attendees defacing property and with my right eye, I watch officers in full uniform with open containers of alcohol drinking. On many occasions I have witnessed that happen. So because of the banality of how they police us in our communities, it's not my only concern about the overpolicing in the community on that day. As I am certain that after this hearing and investigation, City Council will do its due diligence to ensure our community will not be met with this level of force by PPD on the day of Pride again, at least not in the near future. My other concern is the systemic one. It's that multiple departments within City Hall may have been fully aware of the plan for an overwhelming police presence well in advance of the day and chose to do and say nothing to prevent, stop or warn our community of the dangers awaiting us in the Gayborhood. My professional background is in large-scale parades and festivals held in major metropolitan cities. I have worked on logistics and production teams for events such as the National Cherry Blossom Parade in Washington, D.C., the July 4th Parade in both D.C. And in Philadelphia, the 6ABC Thanksgiving Day Parade here in Philly. I have managed the Lehigh Valley Pride and I was one of the logistics coordinator for Philly Pride when the festival was brought to the Gayborhood in 2022. I have worked on these teams many times over the span of a decade. I have participated in meetings with many metro city police, police departments, Office of Emergency Management, Office of Special Events, Office of LGBTQ Affairs, EMS, Fire, the Department of Homeland Security and other municipal departments. I understand how these kinds of events work and how they are coordinated across teams and departments from inception to execution. So when it was proposed to the city to move the festival to the Parkway, which I fully support by the way, as the safest option, I'm finding it incredibly hard to believe that no one in all of those departments on all of those teams asked the questions, what are we going to do with the Gayborhood or how are we going to handle the influx of people in the Gayborhood after the festival has ended on the Parkway. These are logical questions that should have and likely were posed to these multiple departments within City Hall. The first priority of an event producer and the city that facilitates it should always be the safety and protection of the attendees before, during and after an event. This priority is magnified here in Philly because of our predominantly Black and Brown city and our Pride attendees along. And they belong to a -- the priority is magnified here in Philly because we are a predominantly Black and Brown city, and our Pride attendees belong to multiple marginalized communities. The City of Philadelphia and the PPD failed in its mandate to protect our community this year. And if, in fact, multiple departments were in full awareness of this plan to overpolice us, the people who lead these departments also need to be held accountable. Thank you. (Applause.)
My name is James Bridgeforth. Pronouns are he/him/his. I'm here speaking today as a resident of the City of Philadelphia. But I would be remiss if I didn't also acknowledge that I'm the Ward Leader of the Democratic Ward, Leader of the 46th Ward of Philadelphia. I came here to support today's hearing and the people who signed up to share their truth about what happened at Pride. As an academic with years of experience studying crisis management and community voice and policy and decision-making, I came here today because I wanted to see how our government would respond to community members who are often ignored, marginalized and whose concerns are labeled as unimportant, given all the many issues we're facing in this world. I originally didn't plan on speaking today. I was only at Pride for a short time that day and I didn't directly experience a trauma that so many others actually faced. But I decided I wanted to speak because I wanted to be on the record that we need to continue to see this kind of energy from Council. When these kinds of crises occur in too many cases in our city and in this country, residents often feel ignored and shut out from decisions that are made in their name. As we move forward from this hearing, my hope is that we hold our city accountable for making sure that all of our residents and visitors feel safe and free to celebrate openly, to simply live their very best lives free from harassment, intimidation and violence of all forms. In the future when we talk about safety, I also want us to always consider what do we actually mean when we say that word. Safety from what and safety for whom. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you both so much. Ms. Hartman, can you call the next public commenters.
Alicia Gambrel and Tyrell Brown. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
That's it. You two are the last two, at least who have signed up. Can you repeat the other name?
Apparently, she's no longer here. Please state your name and your pronouns for the record.
Yes. Tyrell Brown, they/he pronouns interchangeably. Hi. I'm the founder and Executive Director of Philly Pride 365. And I wasn't going to comment today, but there were some things that were inconsistencies that I have heard repeated over and over again in meetings with the Commissioner. There are also things that I'm actually shocked to hear because one of my friends Christian just spoke, and spoke about what they experienced on the festival ground and I wanted to express within two minutes that -- number one, our community is very unique in the sense that we are interwoven with power titles, but also community members that we call family that are family to us. And it's horrifying to know that on that day, somebody that I hold near and dear was pushed several times to the ground. And that's personal to me. But it's also knowing that watching those videos, it was horrifying because I actually have emails and communications in which I sent over guidances to people saying that these are things that they should anticipate. So even if they say they didn't anticipate it was going to happen or they didn't know it was going to happen, what we can look back at as history from 2022, 3, 4 and 5, knowing that there was an influx of people that were coming to the Gayborhood to celebrate even when the festival was happening in the Gayborhood. People were coming down at 5:30, 6:00, 7:00 and staying later. So the fact that there wasn't an anticipated, you know, or an expected attendance boom into the Gayborhood, it's just factually not true. And it's not supported by anyone looking at history and data and looking at communications for the past four years. And so, my thing is about shared accountability and really accepting the fact that there were mistakes made this year. And I think that I have to take accountability and that means that I have to make changes in the way that I organize things. But if I'm going to do that and I'm going to tell the truth about it, then goddamnit, the people here that work in institutions that get paid by our tax dollars should be ready to tell the truth about the things that were communicated to them, about the things that they were planning for, and then also about how we can have shared accountability about planning forward. And if we're not going to do that, if we're going to try to just hide behind excuses and video evidence and saying, I understand, we understand all these things, we know what happened. People were there and we saw what happened. We did. We saw intercommunity violence. We all witnessed those things. We also saw aggression. We saw unnecessary agitation. We saw violent language being used against our community. And it wasn't just on June 7th, as has been expressed over and over again. These are things that have happened routinely for the last -- for as long as I've lived in Philadelphia my entire life. This is stuff that has happened, and it was exacerbated and it was put on display. And it was a public embarrassment during June Pride Month for the entire nation for Philadelphia to be represented that way, to be our community during Pride to be treated that way. And I just want to end with Pride is not just an event. It is literally what we -- it's what we reach to. It's what we carry within ourselves. It's what we have to carry with ourselves, whether or not you attend an event or not. And so, if that's being crashed into by authorities saying and calling us names and pushing us to the ground -- I was in the Gayborhood that day after our event. They wouldn't even let us to our hotel. We were staying at the Fairfield on 13th and Locust. They yelled at us. They yelled at me and Sappho and told us that we couldn't get to our hotel. They prevented us from walking after working an entire 12-hour day to go to our hotel to rest. It felt dangerous. It felt like they didn't care. And even I will say this, my last thing.
Over the years, even with my credentialing, this is the thing, it's like I'm the producer of the event. I have this badge and I go to officers and I say, hey, I need you to move this, that, or the other or I need you to please tone down this or that or the other, and they look at me like I'm a stranger to them, like I have no authority in that space. And that happens whether or not the Pride is on the Gayborhood or on the Parkway, because it did happen on the Parkway. They looked at me there on the Parkway and they wouldn't follow instructions from me there on the Parkway. And I'm holding credentials saying that I run this event so there isn't -- it just feels like there isn't any respect, regardless of whether or not you're an attendee, an organizer, or whether or not you have an institutional position. None of these things seem to be able to protect us, and we should just be treated respectfully as sovereign residents of Philadelphia. And that's just that. So thank you. )
Thank you very much. Is there anybody else here who wants to provide public comment? (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Please state your name for the record, your pronouns and proceed with your testimony.
Hello. My name is Brighton Golphin and I go by they/them pronouns. I'm a resident of South Philadelphia. Aside from the violence that happened as it relates to the police in the Gayborhood, I do want to put something on your radar, Councilmember. Aside from the Gayborhood being overly policed, as we saw in Jacen Bowman's video this past weekend, South Street has been terribly, overly policed. Because I am a South Philly resident, I often go to South Street because, you know, we have Val's. I don't personally attend marches, but we also have marches, we have all these other businesses that are also on South Street. We have South Street Art Mart. They have a lot of events there. And there's other businesses that have been known for Black and Brown queer folks to attend. And that was way before marches and Val's had appeared. When I leave Val's at 12:00 at night, most bars close at 2:00. Why is 2nd and South blocked off barricaded, lights off, closed off. It doesn't make any sense. And it's not just me and other folks that attend South Street events or bars that have been dealing with this. It's also other businesses that have been suffering threatening to close because of the overpolicing and the barricades that have been happening on South Street. And again, I'm aware that years ago there was a shooting incident that happened. However, it's been so many years. I don't understand why we still need the barricades and whatnot. Now, if it's a festival or an event such as this, festivals at South Street, I mean, South Street Art Mart puts together, okay, I understand it. It's going to be open. We're going to have all these events. But to be overpoliced, if I'm going to the Philly Aids Thrift or going to Val's, that's unnecessary. And we call it the Lesborhood. But how is it the Lesborhood if we're still being overpoliced there? I know this was about the Gayborhood, but I just wanted to put that into your perspective that we're not even welcome in our own Lesborhood because of the overpolicing. (Applause.)
So thank you. Thank you so much for your comments. I really appreciate it. Just want you to know that we've been in -- Councilmember Squilla and I have been in conversation with the Administration over a lot of the incidents that are happening on South Street. We hope to clear them up and make it more free and accessible as well.
Okay. So hearing that no one else is here for public comment, this concludes the public hearing of the committee -- oh, sorry. I just wanted to say a few things in conclusion.
I'd like to call on Councilmember Mark Squilla for closing remarks.
Thank you, Councilmember Landau. I appreciate all the testimony that was given today and the concerns that we heard. We understand that there were challenges and missteps during the event and that we need as a city to do better. We understand what we believed happened and we need to address those concerns. Whether it's with a combination of planning, policing, but also us as Councilmembers need to be involved also in that process. We understand Ty worked very hard. Change is difficult sometimes. We know there was some challenges with people not wanting to go to the Parkway because they wanted to go to the Gayborhood, so we maybe should have been more prepared and aware of the folks that weren't going to go to the Parkway. I was around when we used to have those events down at Penn's Landing. So we know even at those events, when people did go to Penn's Landing, that eventually they would end up back into the Gayborhood. So there were some missteps. And I think it's important to recognize and point them out. But I think the challenge for us is to make sure in the planning process, not only holding accountability to the things that happened, but also planning and preparing for the future, whether the next year's event going to be on the Parkway again, how we address both the Parkway, I was on the Parkway and in the Gayborhood that day, and seeing a lot of both the good things and the bad things that happened. So it's important that we address them, have a plan going forward of how we as a city not only treat the Parkway event, but then how do we treat the Gayborhood during the Pride Festival. And I think we also will need to be accountable working with not only special events, but the planners of the events if Ty is working to do that again next year, and how we make it better for the people who are there, but also better for the City of Philadelphia. The City of Philadelphia did a lot of great things in 2026. This was not one of them. And we need to learn from it and we need to have solutions moving forward. So thank you.
Thank you so much. And I just wanted to add a couple of things. I wanted to thank everyone who's here. It was a very long day. Appreciate that. Thank my colleagues, all the LGBTQ organizations, advocates, organizers, community leaders who came here and shared their expertise and to the public who gave us their experiences. I want to thank Police Commissioner Bethel, Jazelle Jones and Tito Valdes from the Parker Administration, and also make sure that everybody knows that Commissioner Bethel stuck around and listened to every single bit of testimony here is very important. I do believe we are going to get beyond this. I never said in the beginning -- I forgot to say that I didn't make it from the Parkway. I was on the Parkway until 7:00 at night. I felt very done and did not go back to the Gayborhood. But I want to make sure that we highlight something that we just heard a couple of folks ago, that somehow the tenor of what was going on with the police started in the beginning. I was on the float with Councilmember Gauthier, with Naiymah Sanchez and some others. And when our float got to the Parkway and pulled over, we were trying to just get our belongings off of it. It had been a long day, figure out where was -- the police response to us, including with a white shirt who came up to us and said, you have to move now, you have to move now, you have to move now, was so aggressive. We had just arrived to the beginning of the Parkway. And for us, and I've talked to Naiymah about this, this set the tone of what we can now see was the end of Pride. That's what was so concerning, as if they were annoyed and frustrated they even had to be at this event. So the testimony that we heard with people in the Gayborhood being put and kettled through this maze, not being able to get out, then suddenly motorcycles and police and police officers are coming after them is just sheerly terrifying. And I'm so sorry for them, to everybody for the trauma that they endured. But I too believe that we're going to get beyond this. We will definitely circulate the demands that we heard through our first panel of Jacen, Naiymah and Chris. We're going to circulate that to the police and the administration. We are going to definitely memorialize everything else we heard and asks and requests of the administration. And this doesn't stop today. There is no doubt that we will build on this to figure out how we work for next year, how we can make this a safe event and a celebratory event for all of us, and to make sure that we are continuing to work on rebuilding and strengthening police community relations because it's essential. And it also has to -- the police have to meet the community halfway so they understand that the community's requests and expectations are met in this process as well. So we will put all of this into practice. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for staying for such a long day. Appreciate you so much. I have one more thing I'm supposed to say, which is this concludes the public hearing of the Committee of Legislative Oversight. This committee will stand in recess until the call of the Chair. Thank you all very much. (Applause.) - - - Committee on Legislative Oversight concluded at 2:00 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL