Philly City Council grilled Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel over officers’ Pride response as LGBTQ advocates demanded accountability

Several members of Philadelphia City Council and a bevy of LGBTQ community leaders on Wednesday sharply criticized Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, who testified about the department’s response to Pride festivities in the city’s Gayborhood in June and largely defended the force’s crowd control tactics that had drawn outrage.

Bethel acknowledged that June 7 was “not a perfect day” and vowed that the police department would implement more robust planning procedures ahead of next year’s celebrations.

But he stopped short of apologizing for the police department’s response, saying chaotic scenes from the Pride events were part of officers’ attempts to disperse crowds from the Gayborhood, where thousands of people congregated instead of the city’s official festival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Among them, Bethel said, were hundreds of teenagers, some of whom were depicted on video fighting.

“There’s a large group of young people who [had] descended into the neighborhood for what they think is something there,” Bethel said. “There is nothing for them there, other than to take over the street.”

That comment did not sit well with Council members and dozens of LGBTQ community members who attended the hearing at City Hall.

“Your testimony today and what I’m hearing is both painful and perplexing,” said Councilmember Rue Landau, a Democrat who called for the hearing and is the first out LGBTQ person to serve on Council. “It is mind-boggling to think that you and your team would not know that people were going back to the Gayborhood.”

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas said he was “confused” why groups of teenagers fighting would have prompted an outsized police response throughout the Gayborhood that included crowds running amid police on horseback and motorcycles.

“It doesn’t really feel like we’re having a conversation that can put us in a position of earning the trust of a lot of the people who feel like the trust has been lost,” he said.

And C. Michael Robinson, a community advocate, added: “Only adult bullies scapegoat children, and that was a weak display of leadership.”

The hearing Wednesday before Council’s Committee on Legislative Oversight was the most tense questioning that Bethel, a veteran of the city’s police force, has faced since he was sworn in as commissioner in January 2024 at the beginning of Parker’s term. He has enjoyed a largely warm relationship with Council members who have been supportive of his leadership amid a significant drop in violent crime.

However, the police department faced intense scrutiny following June 7, the day of the Pride parade and celebration during which 15 people were arrested and videos of police corralling crowds in the Gayborhood drew widespread criticism. Videos posted to social media showed officers physically struggling with Pride attendees, as well as police on horseback and motorcycles dispersing people, and at times displaying batons and Tasers.

Following the backlash, Landau called for Council’s Committee on Legislative Oversight to hear testimony from the department’s top brass, as well as members of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and LGBTQ advocates.

Pride attendees who testified Wednesday said police forcefully directed them through a maze of barricades in the Gayborhood. Several described being pushed and yelled at, and said that the most aggressive tactics were used on crowds of mostly Black people. One person said they heard an officer use a derogatory slur.

Parker said in a statement Wednesday that the events described during the hearing “show us we can and must do better.”

“We can and will learn from what occurred,” she said.

This year marked the first time the city’s Pride festival was held on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where Bethel said police were well-prepared to manage crowds. Thousands of people still congregated in the Gayborhood, where celebrations were held in previous years, creating dueling events that he said overwhelmed the department.

Officers attempted to manage crowds in the Gayborhood for hours, Bethel said, and began working to disperse people by late afternoon. To do so, he said officers used barricades, as well as officers mounted on horseback and motorcycles to motivate people to leave on their own.

Landau said she was horrified by the crowd control tactics and asked Bethel if he supported the decision to have officers on motorcycles on the sidewalk, calling it “terrifying” and “dangerous.”

He said the goal of moving the crowd was “appropriate at the time.”

In what became a tense back-and-forth, Landau said that people attending Pride “did not believe that you were there to protect them.”

“They were terrified, they were harassed, they were traumatized,” she said. “This was not about protection. You had 150 officers there, by your own testimony. That is a significant amount of officers.”

Bethel responded: “Do you want police there at all?”

Landau appeared taken aback.

“My comment that there was 150 officers there should not turn into the the end-sum game of ‘do you not want anybody there?’” she said.

The police commissioner did not specify how many officers in total are facing potential discipline stemming from Pride events on June 7, but he said that “eight or nine″ are under investigation by the Internal Affairs Division for wearing facial coverings, a violation of department policy.

Bethel, who was formerly the police department’s liaison to the LGBTQ community, vowed a more collaborative planning process next year.

“Next year it will not be like that. It will be prepared,” Bethel said. “It is not my job to police that event. It is to keep it safe.”

Several LGBTQ advocates and community members testified in favor of additional accountability measures.

Jacen Bowman, the president of Philly Black Pride, called for an independent after-action review, a permanent LGBTQ+ public safety advisory council that is consulted during the planning of large events, and more consistent cultural competency training for officers.

“Versions of these structures already exist,” Bowman said. “The question is whether or not the structure has the authority, independence, or enforcement power necessary to produce accountability. Oversight without authority is observation.”