5,000 Protest Poverty, Homelessness at GOP Convention by Steven Wishnia and Bill Weinbergco

Defying Mayor John Street’s ban on protests in downtown Philadelphia during the Republican Convention last summer, 5,000 people marched down Broad Street on the convention’s first day to protest poverty and homelessness. The protesters completed a three-mile trek through South Philly in fierce, humid heat, but police barred them from getting within several blocks of the convention site, even closing down the nearest subway station.

"They’re trying to push the poverty under the rug, but there’s just too much poverty in Philadelphia," says Willie Baptist of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, a North Philly community group that organized the march. "We’re witnessing a systematic dismantling of our rights and entitlements we deserve as residents of the US - the dismantling of public housing, privatization of education." Baptist added that the march had been organized under heavy police surveillance.

Over 400 people were arrested during the convention protests, with some jailed for as long as 10 days before arraignment.