Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Several members of Philadelphia City Council<\/a> and a bevy of LGBTQ community leaders on Wednesday sharply criticized Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel<\/a>, who testified about the department\u2019s response to Pride festivities<\/a> in the city\u2019s Gayborhood in June and largely defended the force\u2019s crowd control tactics that had drawn outrage.<\/p>\n Bethel acknowledged that June 7 was \u201cnot a perfect day\u201d and vowed that the police department would implement more robust planning procedures ahead of next year\u2019s celebrations.<\/p>\n But he stopped short of apologizing for the police department\u2019s response, saying chaotic scenes from the Pride events were part of officers\u2019 attempts to disperse crowds from the Gayborhood,<\/a> where thousands of people congregated instead of the city\u2019s official festival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. <\/p>\n Among them, Bethel said, were hundreds of teenagers, some of whom were depicted on video fighting.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a large group of young people who [had] descended into the neighborhood for what they think is something there,\u201d Bethel said. \u201cThere is nothing for them there, other than to take over the street.\u201d<\/p>\n That comment did not sit well with Council members and dozens of LGBTQ community members who attended the hearing at City Hall.<\/p>\n \u201cYour testimony today and what I\u2019m hearing is both painful and perplexing,\u201d said Councilmember Rue Landau<\/a>, a Democrat who called for the hearing<\/a> and is the first out LGBTQ person to serve on Council. \u201cIt is mind-boggling to think that you and your team would not know that people were going back to the Gayborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n Councilmember Isaiah Thomas<\/a> said he was \u201cconfused\u201d why groups of teenagers fighting would have prompted an outsized police response throughout the Gayborhood that included crowds running amid police on horseback and motorcycles. <\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really feel like we\u2019re 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n And C. Michael Robinson, a community advocate, added: \u201cOnly adult bullies scapegoat children, and that was a weak display of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n The hearing Wednesday before Council\u2019s Committee on Legislative Oversight was the most tense questioning that Bethel, a veteran of the city\u2019s police force, has faced since he was sworn in as commissioner in January 2024 at the beginning of Parker\u2019s term. He has enjoyed a largely warm relationship with Council members who have been supportive of his leadership amid a significant drop in violent crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n