Richie Goodwin (inset), a resident of the Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown, has been called out as one of the scum that was allowed to attack protesters during a rally on Monday.
Used to be a time when meatheads could beat up on people they think are threatening their neighborhood and the police would be cool about it. Some folks in the Philly neighborhood of Fishtown are about to learn this is so not that time.
PHILADELPHIA, PA – The city imposed a curfew for 6 PM in an effort to quell the unrest taking place in the city as residents protested police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That didn’t seem to be much of a concern for the approximately 70 mostly White men holding bats – one of them with a hatchet – who on Monday gathered at the police precinct in the Fishtown neighborhood to face off with a dozen protesters, and police didn’t seem to be too concerned when those same men decided to attack and assault those protesters, some reportedly using racial slurs and even attack a WHYY reporter who although wasn’t on the clock still documented the scene.
That incident not only prompted a rally through Fishtown the following night that stretched for blocks, it also meant that those that were concerned had to do what one would think the police would have done and find out who was responsible.
The tattoos of one of them made it very easy to identify.
Richie Goodwin who on his Facebook page described himself as “part spartan with a quarter bit of viking an the rest american Indian descendant of eagle bloodfa (sic)” was readily identifiable in videos and pictures by his tattoos, and is accused of attacking a journalist and smashing the car window of a nurse when she tried to treat the person he attacked. Still photos document an attack he reportedly was involved in, although he has yet to be arrested.
According to WHYY, the group said they were there to protect police as they heckled and threatened a small group of protesters clustered across from them on Girard Avenue. They also assaulted at least three people before dispersing for the night, including WHYY employee Jon Ehrens who they tried preventing him using his smartphone to record them.
huge congregation of agitated white people with bats, golf clubs and billy clubs. n-words flying. overheard: “I’m ready to fuck shit up. you know ive been looking for a fight for the past 6 months.” pic.twitter.com/UHOTWMSWDT
— Jon Ehrens (@jwehrens) June 1, 2020
Residents called 911 to file complaints about what the men were doing, but many of them were brushed off by police, who reportedly told one person, “They’re not going to hurt you,” and according to another person who posted her experience on Instagram, saying that when she called police yelled at her for ten minutes declaring that Fishtown was the safest neighborhood in Philadelphia because of them. Reportedly, the only arrest made was a Black man who said he had a bat thrown at him.
Meanwhile in #Philly: my friend shot this video of assholes threatening protestors and "defending the cops" … stay safe bbz. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/u1KEtkPipy
— Ellen Degenerate (@DAZZLESTORM) June 2, 2020
While the Philadelphia Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit is investigating the situation, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw says that the assertion that police officers condoned and encouraged the group’s presence was untrue. This comes even as Mayor Jim Kenney said the group was seen high-fiving with police officers and taking photos with them, and that it took too long for the group to be broken up. “I would not describe that group as someone that I would want speaking for me, or speaking on behalf of my police department,” she said, also noting that it will be investigated as to why they were allowed to be out after curfew. “I am not a proponent, we are not proponents of intimidation and fear, for the purposes of being bullies.”
Commissioner Outlaw however is not new to this kind of controversy. Before she became Philadelphia’s Police Commissioner in February, she was the Chief of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) in Oregon, and that department under her watch was accused of showing favoritism to the neo-fascist groups Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys as they routinely brawled in the streets with antifa for over two years. The charges levied at the PPB at the time ranged from engaging in heavy-handed tactics against antifa during an Aug 5, 2018 rally, to not arresting Patriot Prayer members caught taking sniper positions on rooftops during the same rally, to a police lieutenant corresponding regularly via text with Joey Gibson, the founder of Patriot Prayer and even warning him about group members facing arrest. After conservative propagandist and Patriot Prayer associate Andy Ngo was accused antifa of assaulting him, throwing milkshakes at him and seriously injuring him in an incident that followed him doxing a woman that a Patriot Prayer seriously injured, the PPB publicly suggested that there was quick drying concrete in the milkshakes that Ngo was hit with, an assertion that has never been shown to be true. Ngo has since used the incident to travel around the country decrying antifa to conservative audiences and write about incidents involving antifa, but he has not been seen among antifa circles as he had before the incident.
Police have received information that some of the milkshakes thrown today during the demonstration contained quick-drying cement. We are encouraging anyone hit with a substance today to report it to police.
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) June 29, 2019
Mayor Kenny said that should the group on Fishtown return they will be made to disperse. Meanwhile activists are working to identify others who were part of it.
Fishtown is a neighborhood Senator and then-presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar visited last year in her failed run for the Democratic nomination to be President. She was seen as a frontrunner to be presumpte nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, but that has since diminished after she began being criticized for how she handled a case where Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was cleared of wrongdoing concerning his involvement in the shooting death of Wayne Reyes in 2006. Chauvin is currently charged with killing George Floyd, and today Klobuchar was the one to announce in a tweet that Klobuchar said in a tweet Wednesday that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is charging fellow former officers Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, and that he’s increased the murder charge against Chauvin to second degree.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is increasing charges against Derek Chauvin to 2nd degree in George Floyd’s murder and also charging other 3 officers. This is another important step for justice.
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) June 3, 2020
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