PHILADELPHIA (AP) - More than two dozen demonstrators were detained during a protest over police funding Tuesday at a building near Philadelphia’s City Hall.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that more than two dozen people sought to occupy the lobby of the city’s Municipal Services Building on Tuesday and a number were detained, including an Inquirer reporter. Police said 26 people were arrested and later issued summary citations for failure to disperse.
The protesters said they were demanding cuts to the police budget and calling for more money for programs supporting schools, housing, and jobs.
The building was one of the sites of protests stemming from the death in Minnesota of George Floyd last month, with demonstrators focusing on the presence of a statue of former city mayor Frank Rizzo. The statue was removed earlier this month.
Floyd died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck even as he pleaded for air and stopped moving.
Rizzo, who died in 1991, was the police commissioner from 1968 to 1971 and mayor from 1972 to 1980. He was praised by supporters as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating against minorities.
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This story has been corrected to note police now saying 26 rather than 27 arrested, cited.
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