5 people hospitalized, 2 arrested after protesters scuffle with police outside of Mayor Kenney's apartment

(Mark Makela/Getty Images)

By Sam Britt

(PHILADELPHIA) Five people were injured, including a Philadelphia police officer, on Tuesday during a scuffle between protesters and police in Old City, according to FOX 29.

ACT UP Philly, a group that has been staging demonstrations outside of Mayor Jim Kenney’s Race Street apartment that call for more housing to address the city's homeless population, scuffled with police on Tuesday when asked to leave private property. Two protesters were arrested and five people were hospitalized, according to WHYY.

A Philadelphia police officer was allegedly bitten and hit while trying to arrest a protester. The officer was taken to the hospital.

ACT UP said that it was the police who instigated the violence.

“The Philadelphia Police Department forcibly removed us and refused us our First Amendment right to protest. Officers shoved people,” Max Ray-Riek, spokesperson for ACT UP, said. “[The police] stepped on or kicked people, grabbed people by their throats and dragged them.”

Philadelphia police said a protester trespassed on private property and that the group had ignored multiple orders to leave the premises.

The police have declined to release body camera footage from the incident. A spokesperson for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that the footage is undergoing a “supervisory level review.”

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