Fifteen people were arrested at a Pride celebration in Philadelphia’s Gayborhood on Sunday, authorities said, and the response drew criticism from some LGBTQ+ residents over how police handled crowd control at the event.
Images of police officers engaging with attendees in Center City circulated widely across local social media feeds on Monday, featuring criticisms of what some considered to be an outsize and aggressive law enforcement presence.
In one image shared on X, a police officer on a motorcycle appears to push against a woman’s chest, and, in another photo, pushes the woman against a garage door while arresting her.
Others videos showed police on horseback dispersing young people from a sidewalk, as well as officers physically struggling with a man outside the gay bar Woody’s.
And in yet another clip, a row of police officers — two of whom were wearing face coverings — formed a line to clear a barricaded Gayborhood street while officers on motorbikes rode along the sidewalks.
Joshua Stokem, a New Jersey resident who regularly attends the city’s Pride celebrations, said he had never seen that large a police presence during such festivities.
“They were definitely getting more and more aggressive” as the gathering stretched into the early evening, said Stokem, who works as a promoter for LGBTQ+ events at city bars.
Councilmember Rue Landau, herself a member of the LGBTQ+ community, said in a statement Monday that LGBTQ+ constituents had reached out to her office in “outrage” and that she was working to better understand the department’s strategy.
“Police brutality has no place at Pride,” she said.
The revelry outside some of the city’s best-known gay establishments was not affiliated with the official Philly Pride March and Festival event that took place on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway throughout the day, Stokem said. But many attendees migrated from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Gayborhood that afternoon, he said, where post-parade parties have become tradition.
Hours before police dispersed the crowd, Stokem said, guests were surprised to arrive and find that several Gayborhood blocks around 13th and Walnut Streets — cordoned off in years prior for attendees to wander — were instead blocked with metal barricades, limiting crowds to the sidewalks.
He said that layout caused large groups of people to pack into the corridors outside bars and restaurants and, in his view, created confusion and exacerbated some of the issues attendees had with police.
For their part, police said they deployed 600 officers for Sunday’s Pride events — including 150 officers to the Gayborhood — to maintain public safety.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said in a statement that the celebration was “by all accounts, a successful event attended and enjoyed by thousands of people.”
Still, “as crowd sizes increased in the Gayborhood, officers responded to a growing number of public safety concerns, including fights, disorderly behavior, blocked roadways, and the challenges associated with safely managing large crowds in a confined area,” Bethel said.
Bethel said the department had expected the Parkway celebration to gradually transition to the Gayborhood event, but that did not happen.
Instead, he said, two separate gatherings were essentially happening at once, creating a situation that was “challenging to manage safely” and led to the decision to clear parts of the neighborhood.
“That decision was not made in any way, shape, or form because people were celebrating Pride,” he said.
In all, 15 people were arrested, according to Bethel, primarily for offenses related to disorderly conduct. One person was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault of a police officer.
Bethel said the department was aware that some officers were wearing face coverings, which are not part of the department’s official uniform, while dispersing crowds.
“We are currently working to identify the officers involved,” the commissioner said, adding the department would determine whether discipline was necessary.
Stokem, the Pride attendee, was one of the social media users who documented the police presence. He said he left the Gayborhood around 7:30 or 8 p.m., when officers with batons ramped up enforcement.
“Police, dressed up as if we’re going to riot, basically start steamrolling the street,” he said. ”They’re just like shoving everyone to a corner and expecting us to … honestly, I didn’t know what they were expecting.”
Some of those arrested appeared to be teenagers who were not part of the Pride celebration, Stokem said, but had nonetheless taken part in the revelry and were behaving disorderly and fighting outside nearby non-LGBTQ+ bars.
“I don’t think it’s OK for that to be happening, but what are you going to do about it?” he said of those altercations and his frustration with the resulting police response. “Because now you’re punishing the entire community.”
