Dozens of police officers, mostly on bikes, herded the protesters off the highway into Queen Village.
“We’re going through the neighborhoods, the places that sit here and write on their Instagrams and Twitters and Facebooks that we’re thugs and we’re angry and we’re just causing commotion,” said organizer Mikal Woods. “But we went through all those neighborhoods and they clapped in solidarity with us.”
The group then kept marching through neighborhoods. The roving protest was punctuated by tense moments, such as when demonstrators say an officer pushed one of them on South Street near 11th. Protesters chanted “defund the police” for a few minutes, then kept marching.
“I feel like, at the very least, they feel us, they hear us. And now we need to get in our legislature, we need our politicians to hear us more vividly,” said Justin, a recent college graduate living in Fairmount, who would not give his last name, as they proceeded down South Street.
Around 9 p.m., the group approached the South Street Bridge leading into West Philadelphia, to find it blocked by a line of officers with their bikes. The crowd shouted at the officers, but eventually turned back into Center City.
The protest wrapped up around 10 p.m. at City Hall.