Poe is visiting as many communities as possible between now and the May 20th election, to get to know all of Philadelphia, and to let all of you get to know him.
He is making the next few weeks of appearances a tour to feature his platform, and just as importantly, to have you help him add to it. Our first week we will be highlighting our Public Safety and Police Accountability focus.
Monday April 28 we will be outside the Philadelphia Family Court, by the Free Library, to show our support for high school student Darrin Manning at his status hearing. Darrin Manning was stopped by Philly Police in January for running while black and hooded, and the encounter, for which he faces multiple charges, ended with an operation at Children’s Hospital for trauma to the young man’s testicle. 
Local media reported with much finger-wagging and tsk’ing that the initial claim that the boy’s testicle was “ruptured” did not match the description in medical reports. Poe does not believe the City of Philadelphia’s police has or should have a policy which includes squeezing or tugging a juvenile’s genitals under any circumstances, and the noise over the discrepancy in the hospital record further miss the point: that the aggressive stop and arrest of Manning was conducted without reasonable suspicion, in violation of the 4th Amendment, and constitutes racial profiling, a violation of the 4th Amendment under the color of law.
Video of the incident was released by the police, and you can see for yourself if you think officers acted reasonably and appropriately. We will be at the courthouse at 8:15 AM, joining calls to drop the standing charges against Manning, and listening to other supporters talk about the case and their own experiences. The rest of the week will include visits to at least 5 Police Districts: the 12th, 15th, 19th, 22nd (location of the Manning incident), and the 25th.
We chose these locations based on the number of complaints filed with the Police Advisory Commission for each district. This data is available online, and we have created a PDF, embedded below, for you to view PAC complaints in total, with separate pages for our selected districts.
Later next week, we’ll also be at District Attorney Seth William’s office to draw attention to stalled Bill 140001-A to end mandatory custodial arrest for possession of small amounts of marijuana, which has been held up in bureaucracy.
Vote N.A. Poe For Philadelphia City Council 