Philadelphia looting major topic at Violence Summit in Overbrook
OVERBROOK - A violence summit was planned to be held at St. Joseph’s University months before the recent looting this past week, but those crimes were certainly a major point of discussion.
"We are losing businesses," Philadelphia Councilmember Curtis Jones said. "Target. We are losing CVS and Rite Aids because they don’t feel safe."
Councilmember Jones and many others put the Violence Summit together. Jones described the group as, "sick and tired of being sick and tired."
People who say they are fed up with the crime on Philly’s streets and want change and believe that starts with more adults stepping up.
"How many of us are actually mentoring our youth," asked Keturah Holman. "Maybe the biggest way to address it is become a mentor."
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Among the speakers were District Attorney Larry Krasner and Acting Police Commissioner John Stanford. Both talked about the need for more witnesses to speak up to help solve more crimes.
They both also addressed the recent looting across the city and what should happen to those who committed those crimes.
"Everyone doesn’t need to be in jail, but there are some folks who need to be, especially when you talk about some of the violent crimes that we see or many of the crimes that have an impact on the community, long term," Acting Police Commissioner Stanford explained.
DA Krasner continued, "And the people who have been involved in committing crimes during this unrest will be addressed individually. We will look carefully to see whether this is a one-off situation and they’re fundamentally law-abiding people and hold them accountable one way or whether they are criminals."
"People have to be held accountable," Stanford went on. "If folks feel like they can go in and steal from stores and commit those types of acts without consequences, then that behavior continues."
There were no concrete solutions at the summit, but most people agree that just talking about these problems is a step in the right direction, especially when it comes to young people.