Philadelphia Police: A History of Brutality
This post is part of Philly Power Research's “Beyond Policing” series. This series is continuing work that was previously led by Movement Alliance Project (MAP) over the past two years exploring how Philadelphia can invest in our communities to improve public safety instead of investing in policing. MAP's "Safety We Can Feel" campaign included a survey of 1300 Philadelphia residents and dozens of interviews on how to build strong, healthy, and safe communities.
content warning: This piece contains descriptions police brutality and newspaper photographs of victims of police brutality
Pictured: A poster by the Campaign Against Police Abuse that reads “Stop police abuse” across the bottom, below a broken nightstick and glasses. Above, many names of victims of police brutality are listed by year; from 1977 back to 1972, where the names abruptly cut off.
Pictured: A Philadelphia Tribune editorial cartoon titled “Puzzle: Find the 'keepers of the peace'” illustrates the idea that police protect only who they want to protect. A white mob (labeled “direct descendants of the stone age”) is attacking a house labeled “home of a Philadelphia tax payer of color.” Cries of “police, help!” come from the house while two police officers look the other way and say “they should not have moved into this section.” (Philadelphia Tribune, May 10, 1928)
Pictured: Philadelphia Tribune front page, June 29, 1957, reporting on multiple incidents of police misconduct. One story reports on police baseless police raids that targeted Black families in West Philadelphia and another graphically documented the police beating of James Lett.
Pictured: A poster by the Campaign Against Police Abuse that reads “Stop police abuse” across the bottom, below a broken nightstick and glasses. Above, many names of victims of police brutality are listed by year; from 1977 back to 1972, where the names abruptly cut off.
This post is part of Philly Power Research's “Beyond Policing” series. This series is continuing work that was previously led by Movement Alliance Project over the past two years exploring how Philadelphia can invest in our communities to improve public safety instead of investing in policing. MAP's "Safety We Can Feel" campaign included a survey of 1300 Philadelphia residents and dozens of interviews on how to build strong, healthy, and safe communities.