Protesters marched through Philadelphia Sunday following deadly shootings by police in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.
The protesters gathered at 40th and Market streets around 7 p.m. in West Philadelphia and then marched to Center City. They then stopped at City Hall around 9:15 p.m. and held a rally, blocking 15th and Market streets, for about a half hour. They then continued east on Market toward Front Street. Philadelphia police closed the entrance ramp to I-95 to prevent any of the protesters from walking onto the highway.
A peace rally also took place earlier Sunday at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A flier promoting the event, which took place at 4 p.m., stated it was a "Philly Pop-Up Peace Rally" meant to mobilize the Philadelphia community to “build peace and unity.”
Sunday marked the fifth consecutive day of protests in Philadelphia. A march to the police department’s 24th and 25th District headquarters on Whitaker Avenue near Erie Saturday night was the most aggressive demonstration in Philadelphia so far with protesters screaming at police. Protesters vowed to "shut down" the districts, saying they were responsible for perpetrating brutality. Despite the tension, no arrests or injuries were reported.
Philadelphia's demonstration without arrests stood in stark contrast to others across the nation, some of which left officers with injuries and protesters in handcuffs.
Groups of protesters numbering in the hundreds have taken to the streets in Philadelphia each day since Wednesday in response to the police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in St. Paul Minnesota.
Friday and Saturday's protests came on the heels of an attack on police at the end of a protest in Dallas Thursday night that left five officers dead, seven others injured and two civilians wounded. Police have said so far that the gunman acted alone in that shooting, but the investigation is still active.
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