Philadelphia police send warning to anyone planning on looting: "You're not going to destroy this city"
For several days, Philadelphia police have been monitoring social media and keeping an eye on threats related to looting and other unrest in the city.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel shared some tough words on Friday when discussing how the department will handle any looting that happens.
"You're not going to destroy this city," Bethel said. "We're not playing today. But we sure as hell will be ready. If you want to come, then we're ready and we are going to take every possible thing that we can do to ensure that that doesn't happen, and that means arrest," he said.
The Philadelphia Police Department has warned those across social media calling for chaos to reconsider or go elsewhere.
"We are not going to allow individuals to walk through this city and loot. We are going to put forth our greatest effort to stop that from happening," Bethel said. "It is unacceptable that individuals post on a website that they're going to come and loot 52nd Street."
About a half hour after the police commissioner's news conference Friday, CBS News Philadelphia went to 52nd and Market streets and shared Bethel's words with residents in the area, like Mike Love.
"I gotta shake my head because it's all just a bunch of bologna," he said. "Because this is the most peaceful part. The only time we have an issue is if somebody's riding around -- which is young kids under the age of 15, 16 they got those little scooter bikes."
Police sources told CBS News Philadelphia on Wednesday night while calls went out on social media by some encouraging trouble, a surge of extra officers knocked down efforts to loot and vandalize.
"Small businesses that are still struggling to come back from the last looting, now have to close their doors and hire security because someone wants to put online what they're going to do," Bethel said.
There is already a sense of added security at 52nd and Market streets. Some businesses have already added additional resources but told CBS News Philadelphia that so far, they haven't run into any issues.
