Detained protesters, a brawl and reforms mark tense day in Philadelphia | Morning Newsletter
And, the Phillies could be back together next week.
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For almost a month, people in Philadelphia have been marching and protesting against racism, police brutality, and more. And after a City Council meeting yesterday, reforms aimed at the city’s police department could be coming this week, including one that calls on the department to end “unconstitutional stop-and-frisk.” But outside of that virtual meeting, the city was on edge yesterday. Officers detained people protesting at the Municipal Services Building and hundreds gathered near the boarded-up Christopher Columbus statue in South Philly.
— Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Philadelphia officers detained more than two dozen people who staged a sit-in yesterday at the Municipal Services Building. They were calling for the city to defund the Police Department, while hundreds marched on Broad Street to support the same cause. Among those detained was my colleague Samantha Melamed, who was reporting on the protests.
And in South Philadelphia, a brawl ensued at Marconi Plaza, when 50 people who came from the Center City protest were engaged by more than 100 men who had gathered, wielding baseball bats and hammers. They were among hundreds more who were at the boarded-up statue of Christopher Columbus, some of them there to protest “‘white supremacist vigilantes’ and the Police Department’s handling of a group of people — some armed with weapons — who stood near the statue for days, claiming they were guarding it from protesters,” my colleague Anna Orso reports.
As protests continued throughout the city, City Council looks set to pass a package of five police reform measures, according to reporting from my colleague Sean Collins Walsh. Three of them will go through tomorrow, at Council’s final meeting before its summer break.
Major League Baseball players will report for “spring training 2.0″ mostly in their home cities on July 1, my colleague Scott Lauber reported yesterday. This comes one day after the Players Association voted down a proposal, and after months of battles between team owners and players that saw other American sports leagues find common ground during MLB’s infighting.
Commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to set a 60-game schedule. While details aren’t finalized, Lauber reports that opening day could be July 23 or 24, with the regular season ending on Sept. 27. There could also be a universal designated hitter in place and other rules and roster changes.
Though outdoor dining and retail have started back up in Philadelphia, most white-collar office workers are still at home, my colleague Christian Hetrick reports. And that’s crushing already struggling downtown businesses.
The economic impact, Hetrick reports, could be long-lasting, with the potential that companies who have largely gone remote won’t need as many in-office employees anymore.
What you need to know today
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed yesterday to consider Bill Cosby’s bid to overturn his sex-assault conviction. The court said it was interested in looking at two specific elements of Cosby’s case.
Gov. Kenney? Mayor Jim Kenney has launched a political action committee that has rekindled speculation that he may run for governor in 2022.
COVID-19 is more likely to hospitalize and kill people who have certain preexisting conditions, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pennsylvania state police released dashcam video from June 1, when police fired tired gas on demonstrators on the Vine Street Expressway. The footage does not appear to show any of the acts of aggression toward authorities that officials said prompted the police’s force.
Volunteers are still hunting for medical PPE. Why is it still so scarce?
Leaders at the Glen Mills Schools failed to comply with child-abuse laws, according to a new report from the state auditor genera;, whose office is one of several agencies pledging to investigate Glen Mills following an Inquirer report documenting decades of abuse and cover-ups.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
@feri_streets captured some scenes of a march that happened over the weekend. Thanks for sharing.
Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!
That’s interesting
🎆There will be no official Fourth of July fireworks display in Philadelphia this summer.
🏖️Columnist Elizabeth Wellington offers some tips on how to still enjoy your summer, despite its already feeling much different than it has in the past.
🦐If you want to get together for a backyard meal, food editor Jamila Robinson offers some recipes that can be made for social-distance servings.
🙌Flyers left wing Oskar Lindblom’s cancer treatments are almost over. He skated with his teammates yesterday for the first time at the team’s practice facility since he underwent treatments.
🎨City Council has put money reserved for arts funding back into the revised COVID-19-ravaged budget. That includes a full restoration of the subsidy for the African American Museum in the city.
🚲These are the bike trails near Philly that are worth exploring.
Opinions
“I miss my mom. I worry that after this long time apart, she will no longer recognize me or my sisters. I worry that she will have fewer words when we see her again. I worry that she is declining more quickly and that March 11 might be the last time I got to see her alive.” — writes Ann E. Green, an English professor at St. Joseph’s University, about not being able to see her mother, who has dementia, because of COVID-19 restrictions.
It took newspapers way too long to finally start capitalizing the letter “B” in Black, columnist Jenice Armstrong writes.
Col. Curtis Milam, who served 26 years on active duty with the Air Force, writes about how he learned to love Donald Trump because he’s “exactly what America needed.”
What we’re reading
The Philadelphia Tribune profiles entrepreneurs who were able to grow their food businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Guardian reports on a botched art restoration in Spain and how that is prompting experts to call for tightening the laws covering restoration because they’re concerned about “a long line of artworks to suffer a damaging and disfiguring repair.”
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times about journalistic objectivity and how Black journalists are leading a reckoning.
Your Daily Dose of | Wedding dresses
Colleen Donovan’s love story began as a divorced mother of four and a never-used wedding dress hanging in her closet. Then, three years ago, when a friend was getting married, Donovan gave the dress to her, and Blessing Brides Ministry was born. Her full-time job is being a hospice nurse, but Donovan’s Downingtown storefront collects donations and has dresses that are deeply discounted.