Hundreds March Through City for 'Philly is Baltimore' Rally

What started as about 500 people gathered at City Hall at 4 p.m. eventually grew to approximately 1,000 protesters marching through Center City to show solidarity with protesters in Baltimore, according to NBC 10. The report says that dozens walked from University City to meet the rally at Dilworth Plaza.

Many Center City businesses and government offices closed in the early afternoon to avoid possible traffic back-ups and delays as the crowd marched into the streets, Philly.com reports. After the demonstration at Dilworth Plaza, the crowd took to the streets, marching through Rittenhouse Square and making their way to the Vine Street Expressway.

CNN reports that Wednesday’s activity in Baltimore remained relatively peaceful, with protesters dispersing at the 10 a.m. curfew. However, similar protests in New York and Denver resulted in multiple arrests, according to NBC News. Early reports of Philadelphia’s protest indicate the rally started out vocal, but peaceful. As the day wore on, some tense moments and confrontations with police officers were reported, but nothing on the scale of other cities.

The most physical moment of the night happened when protesters attempted to push their way through a barricade at the ramp to I-676, according to Philly.com. Officers reportedly received minor injuries and a few protesters were detained. 

The “Philly is Baltimore” protest showed solidarity with the Baltimore protesters’ reaction to the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died while in police custody, according to the organizers from Philadelphia Coalition for Racial, Economic, and Legal (REAL) Justice.

“There are so many similarities between what is happening in Baltimore and what is going on here in Philly,” says the event’s Facebook page. “We stand with the Baltimore Protestors and Uprising. Bring signs, drums and your voices.

The organizers will also rally around a local incident that occurred in December 2014, when Brandon Tate-Brown was shot and killed by officers during a traffic stop in the Frankford section of Philadelphia.

District Attorney Seth Williams declined to press charges in the shooting, saying that Tate-Brown was reaching for a gun when officers shot him. Tate-Brown’s mother filed a lawsuit this week to force the city to release all evidence from the incident.

(Twitter Photo/Green Party of PA)