Philadelphia, Pa., erupted into its second straight night of violent riots following the police shooting death of 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr. Monday afternoon.
Video of the incident shows two police officers backing away from the man, who was wielding a knife and coming toward the officers. His mother is seen futilely attempting to hold him back, before officers fire on him, killing him. At one point in the video, officers can be heard ordering Wallace to put down the knife.
Wallace’s mother said he was suffering from a mental health issue. His family has called for peace.
Despite Penn. Gov. Tom Wolf ordering the National Guard into Philadelphia Tuesday evening, riots and widespread looting have broken out.
The Philadelphia Police Department is requesting that all residents in the 12, 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26th Districts remain indoors except when necessary. These areas are experiencing widespread demonstrations that have turned violent with looting.
— Philadelphia OEM (@PhilaOEM) October 28, 2020
*Alert* A large crowd of appx 1000 is looting businesses in the area of Castor and Aramingo. Avoid the area
— Philadelphia Police (@PhillyPolice) October 28, 2020
Townhall Media’s Julio Rosas is leading our coverage on the scene including providing video.
Some confusion amongst the Philadelphia BLM crowd as they argued which direction to march in. The crowd split up and went in different directions. pic.twitter.com/POctzhgBcH
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 27, 2020
Looters in Philadelphia are pulling up in cars and rushing into stores to grab as much as they can before driving away. pic.twitter.com/I7MCwLnnAg
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 28, 2020
Guys, I haven’t seen riots and looting on this scale and this bad since Minneapolis back in May. It’s chaos out here.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 28, 2020
BREAKING: looting is taking place all around Philadelphia. This is a five below store being ransacked by black lives matter protesters pic.twitter.com/HyCzERRjOk
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 28, 2020
There have reportedly been shootings and assaults.
BLM thugs beat the hell out of @ElijahSchaffer for filming them looting a store. pic.twitter.com/yB8bJ3tK5K
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 28, 2020
Violent protests also spread to New York City. In the background of this video, which appears to show a peaceful march, window-smashing can be heard several times.
Rioting in NYC tonight in support of the BLM Philadelphia riots. pic.twitter.com/9qy9bfkoX2
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) October 28, 2020
Law and order have been a theme of the Trump campaign since riots broke out across the nation over the summer, and the standard Democrat response was to allow the rioters to burn, loot, and destroy and also to defund police departments. This predictably led to further deterioration of basic public safety and spikes in crime nationwide. New York City, for instance, has suffered a 263% increase in shooting incidents in 2020 versus 2019.
Neighborhoods suffering these riots will take years, perhaps decades, to recover — if they ever do.
Update: A local Philadelphia TV station reports on Wallace’s violent history, including assault of a police officer.
Court records show Wallace was currently awaiting trial for allegedly threatening to shoot a woman and her house up.
In 2017, he pled guilty to robbery, assault, and possessing an instrument of crime after kicking down the door of another woman and putting a gun to her head.
He was sentenced to 11-23 months behind bars.
And in 2013, he pled guilty to assault and resisting arrest after punching a police officer in the face.
A court had ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation and treatment in 2013, and his family reportedly said he was bipolar.
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