Statement: Condemning the Police Killing of Alexander Spencer
The Philadelphia Young Communist League is saddened to hear that another Philadelphian has been unjustly murdered by our city’s Police Department. With the murder of Eddie Irizarry and now Alexander Spencer, as well as the subsequent fabrications about the nature of the killings from the police department, the trajectory of Philadelphia under Cherelle Parker becomes clear: the police will frisk you, beat you, even kill you and we will do everything in our power to keep these officers from facing accountability.
Mayor Parker is correct when she says, “this sense of lawlessness must stop in the city of Philadelphia.” However, “lawlessness” cannot be stopped with draconian methods such as stop and frisk or bans on ski masks. The very necessary path forward for our city is divestment of police and investment in our city– investment in schools, parks, infrastructure, and public programs. Additionally, police must be held accountable when they engage in acts of brutality against unarmed, unsuspecting Philadelphians.
We condemn the state of fear our mayor is promoting by enabling Philadelphia police to act like "lawless" stormtroopers. We demand justice for Alexander Spencer and send our condolences to his family and friends. We reaffirm our call for community control of the police in Philadelphia. Residents deserve real power over the police, not feel-good notions of “community policing.” And we call upon Mayor Parker to abandon her plan to unleash the “lawless” police and develop a plan to create prosperity for Philadelphia.