Philadelphia House Delegation members seek justice for unfair Eddie Irizarry ruling and condemn looting in city
Rep. Jose Giral September 27, 2023 | 4:08 PM
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 27 – In the wake of a disruptive wave of looting that hit Philadelphia Tuesday night, Philadelphia House Delegation members condemned the episode and emphasized that seeking justice in the Irizarry case must be separate from the looting.
The chaos unfolded shortly after the announcement that a judge had dropped all charges against former Philadelphia police Officer Mark Dial, who fatally shot Eddie Irizarry. The deadly incident involving Irizarry occurred after a traffic stop.
“What we saw last night is a pure and simple act of vandalism. Under no circumstances can we correlate protesters and looters. There is no possible excuse for destroying public property,” said delegation chairwoman Morgan Cephas.
“We express our solidarity to the victim’s family, and we will keep monitoring the Irizarry case. This needs to be resolved in court, not on the streets of Philadelphia. We would also like to extend our support to the business owners impacted by this unfortunate episode,” Cephas added.
Rep. Jose Giral, who represents the180th Legislative District where the deadly incident took place on Aug. 14, highlighted that he is deeply concerned about the way the Irizarry investigation was conducted.
“It is absolutely outrageous that those charges were dismissed. We need accountability to right the wrongs that occurred today and provide justice for the family,” Giral said.
“Justice must be served, no doubt, but this cannot be transformed into a trigger for anarchy, for violence,” he said.
Rep. Danilo Burgos, vice chair of the delegation, pointed out that the fact that a municipal court judge dismissed murder charges against the police officer that fired his gun six times at close range to the victim, exposes a pressing need to reform the criminal justice system.
“We have seen a total disregard of human life. We are talking about another family, another member of our community that has been failed by this system. This is part of a vicious cycle that must be ended. Now that charges are being re-filed, we demand transparency in the process,” Burgos said.