following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, the group is committed to building a relationship with the West Philly community that might make a complete reimagining of public safety possible.
Christopher Rogers, a member of Police Free Penn and a research fellow with Penn’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites, said that the event is a step toward dismantling the idea of the Penn “bubble” in West Philly. To Rogers, the more that people understand the relationship and impact of the Ivy League university on West Philly, the better.
“It’s about understanding the ways that this hugely wealthy institution is complicit in a lot of the systemic harms that Black Philadelphia faces,” he said. But the event is not only for community members to express how Penn’s presence affects them; Rogers also hopes that members of the Penn community see this as an opportunity to support their West Philly neighbors and