December 1, 2020
Honorable Jim Kenney
Mayor City of Philadelphia
City Hall Room 215
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Mayor Kenney,
We write today as colleagues in service to children and families in Philadelphia. Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of yet another Black man to police and racial violence. The manifest injustice and gross inadequacy of police response to these personal crises and what should be benign events, which we have seen in tragedies across the nation and which have festered here for a long time, now have a new and present reality in our community in the death of Mr. Wallace.
We sincerely believe that you agree that Walter Wallace Jr. should not have died. He should not have been shot. He needed help. We must affirm today and every day that this violence is unacceptable, that we need a radically different valuing of human life, that Black Lives Matter. If there is to be any lasting justice to come from his death, all of us must learn from this.
Underneath and fundamental to all of this, our entire community must recognize the roles of race and racism inside and among us. We have a long history of racism in Philadelphia and in the Police Department. We can do better going forward. We all have so much work to do.
As organizations dedicated to the cause of improving the lives of the City’s children, we write today out of concern for the failures of the City’s infrastructure and police shooting of this obviously sick man. Children across this city listened, learned, and now, have watched this incident. We know it has scared them and it has scarred them.
Far too many of the children in this city have fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, who like Mr. Wallace, need intensive support from our mental health systems. In our society it is sadly a rare privilege to get the help that one needs for mental health problems, both in desperate times such as Mr. Wallace experienced, and much more frequently in response to common needs for treatment and care. The message sent is that our children cannot rely on anyone, even the government, to protect their loved ones in a time of mental health crisis. The stress, pain and fear they must be internalizing as they consider the implications for their own family are unimaginable?
Before this shooting, perhaps some children took solace in the fact that George Floyd was killed by police officers in the far away city of Minneapolis. Now, they know the same defensive reaction, that rapidly devalues life is part and parcel of how police are trained and operate in Philadelphia. It is hard to overstate the chilling effect that our home-grown reality is having on our children. How can they feel there is anyone they can call upon to keep them safe?
We hope you agree that as important as law enforcement can be to the safety and well-being of our communities, officers should not respond to mental-health crisis calls alone. Immediately, the City should guarantee the availability of a behavioral health consultant at the 911 Call Center to assist both 911 callers and the responding officers, and to provide a direct connection between police patrol officers and Mobile Crisis Response units.
Second, police training and daily assignments should continually focus on de-escalation. We look for City government to go deeper in reforming police training programs, ending excessive use of force, changing the practice of police on the street, and bringing forward the crisis intervention models that we know work.
Third, our communities and especially our children need healing. Children across the City are being affected by these events, responding with anxiety and trauma. Everything we do is teaching them.
We do not have all the answers. But we believe it is urgent that we meet with you to discuss ways that the City can demonstrate to children that this is a community where they can feel safe for themselves and those they care about; that they can count on those working for the City to protect them and their families from harm, and that we truly value every life.
Our children are watching and if we want a safer, more compassionate City we must show them a different way to react and to live.
The following organizations join …
ASAP/After School Activities Partnerships
Justin Ennis, Executive Director
Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence
Marcus Allen, Chief Executive Officer
Children’s Village
Mary Graham, Executive Director
Chinatown Learning Center
Carol Wong, Executive Director
Clean Water Action
Maurice Sampson, Eastern PA Director
The Consortium, Inc
John White Jr., CEO President
edEquity in Practice
Kimberly Byrd
Education Law Center
Deborah Klehr, Executive Director
Episcopal Community Services
David Griffith, Executive Director
Federation Early Learning Services
Mark Ornstein, President and CEO
First Up
Carol Austin, Executive Director
Indochinese American Council
LeQuyen Vu, Executive Director
KenCrest
Maureen Yamamoto, Government Relations Strategist
Kinder Academy, Inc
Leslie Spina Executive, Director
Legal Clinic for the Disabled
Theresa Brabson, Legal Director
Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia
Rev. Dr. Donna Lawrence Jones
National Nurse-Led Care Consortium
Marygrace Joyce, Policy Specialist
Nationalities Service Center
Gretchen Shanfeld, Director
Norris Square Neighborhood Project
Teresa Elliott, Executive Director
The Parent Infant Center
Debbie Green, Executive Director
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
Jeffrey Garis, Outreach Director
People’s Emergency Center
Kathy Desmond, President & CEO
PHMC
Lauren Nestler, Chief Communications & Strategy Officer
POWER
Bishop Dwayne Royster, Executive Director
Public Citizens for Children and Youth
Donna R. Cooper, Executive Director
Public Interest Law Center
Jennifer Clarke, Executive Director
Saint Marys Nursery School
Traci Childress, Executive Director
Sunrise of Philadelphia
Vincent Litrenta, Executive Director
Support Center for Child Advocates
Frank Cervone, Executive Director
Turning Points for Children
David Fair, Deputy Chief Executive Officer
United Communities of Southeast Philadelphia
Francis Carney, Executive Director
Urban League of Philadelphia
Andrea Custis, President & CEO
CC: Danielle M. Outlaw, Commissioner, Philadelphia Police Department, City of Philadelphia Tumar Alexander, Managing Director, City of Philadelphia