2 events at casino site, one violent, one calm
Officers from the Philadelphia Police Department's Civil Affairs Unit kept the peace yesterday afternoon at an anti-casino protest after a violent encounter at a pro-casino event on Saturday.
Officers from the Philadelphia Police Department's Civil Affairs Unit kept the peace yesterday afternoon at an anti-casino protest after a violent encounter at a pro-casino event on Saturday.
Ed Verrall of Casino-Free Philadelphia, who participated in yesterday's peaceful rally at the site of the proposed SugarHouse casino, said he had been punched in the face Saturday afternoon during a picnic there co-sponsored by the casino and a neighborhood group, Fishtown Action, that supports the project.
"I was on the ground and the guy was on top of me," Verrall said. "He was bigger than me."
Donna Tomlinson, a Fishtown Action co-founder, said Verrall had screamed obscenities at her as the picnic wound down and then pushed a female friend who had come to her aid. She said Verrall had thrown punches in the donnybrook with men who pulled him away from the woman he shoved.
"He became enraged," Tomlinson said. "He actually threw the first punch in the whole thing."
Police Lt. Frank Vanore yesterday said detectives were investigating an assault complaint filed by Verrall.
About 80 people from Casino-Free Philadelphia and the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association protested yesterday at the casino site, on Delaware Avenue at Shackamaxon Street.
About 40 SugarHouse supporters staged a counterprotest.
Also yesterday, a small group of protesters from CasinoFreePA called on state Attorney General Tom Corbett to seek a court order to stop the opening of casinos until the state Department of Environmental Protection studies their potential impact.
The state gaming law, passed in July 2004, gives the attorney general power to establish a gaming unit to conduct criminal investigations regarding casinos.
The CasinoFreePA protesters said they were not claiming to have knowledge of any crimes.
Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Corbett, said his office plans to forward the request to the DEP because Corbett does not have jurisdiction over environmental audits. *
























