Stories tagged: "Philadelphia Police Department"
Current law says police officers attempting to arrest someone can use deadly force in order to prevent death or serious injury to themselves or others.
Philadelphia's police commissioner is defending her department and the city's response to days of widespread protests against police brutality last summer.
“Right now, we are created by executive order. In theory, if you get a different mayor sometime in the future, the mayor could eradicate it. Now, it can’t be destroyed," said the acting executive director of the existing commission.
Police said they shot Walter Wallace Jr. on Oct. 26 because he had a knife and ignored orders to put it down. Wallace never raised the knife or lunged or ran toward officers.
An attorney for the boy's mother called out the cops on their lie and said the little boy is now "terrified because of what the police did."
Attorney Shaka Johnson called for every officer in the Philadelphia Police Department to be equipped with Tasers.
"We don't have a behavioral health unit, which is sorely needed," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. "There's clearly a disconnect on our end in terms of knowing what's out there."
