from Praxis
“The only thing we want is for these events to go off without a hitch. We certainly don’t want any violence. People have a right to protest. Our job is to protect their right to protest.” – Charles Ramsey, Philadelphia Police Commissioner from 2007 to 2016
Regardless of how much patriotic propaganda surfaces about Philadelphia, the city fails to fully suppress the pervasive histories of violence against radical dissidents throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The reign of Frank Rizzo throughout the 1970s, the 1985 MOVE bombing, and the heavy-handed repression of protesters at the Republican National Convention in 2000 all serve as examples of Philadelphia’s most polarizing incidents. However, political policing practices have changed considerably over the past fifteen years. PPD leaders are increasingly aware of the damaging effects that repression against protesters has on the legitimacy attributed to the police. Although we continue to see abusive policing tactics in response to dissent throughout the country, Philadelphia’s police increasingly emphasize the softer side of political repression, posing new challenges for radical dissidents.