Incidents like these further do not help Philadelphia in our efforts to quell the gun violence epidemic. Unnecessary deaths of Black people at the hands of police feed into the tension that already exists in our neighborhoods. It makes communities not want to cooperate with the police, and it encourages people to take justice into their own hands. Furthermore, statements like the one issued by FOP President John McNesby are representative of everything that’s wrong with police culture, abhorrent in the claim that lethal force was necessary to keep our community safe. All police, from beat cops all the way up to the Commissioner, have to be proactive about changing that culture and denouncing that behavior.
