Philly Nonprofit Founder Robert Woodson Points to City’s Lenient DA After Recent Mob Looting

Philadelphia’s district attorney said he’ll apply “individual justice” to those responsible for last week’s looting of several stores in the City of Brotherly Love.

A mob of young adults rampaged through the streets, breaking, entering, and stealing iPhone 15s from an Apple store as well as clothing, and liquor from other shops. 

More than 70 people already face a range of charges, such as burglary, conspiracy, and rioting in the flash mob-style break-ins at dozens of stores that left smashed display windows and broken storefront coverings. All but six of the defendants are adults.  

Video posted on social media showed masked people wearing hoodies running out of Lululemon with merchandise and police officers grabbing several and tackling them to the sidewalk.

Prosecutors said additional suspects will be charged in the break-ins as law enforcement officials review more videos from social media. 

“There was a lot of video from that first evening and evenings that went after that, so we continue to work with (police) on reviewing affidavits, with reviewing evidence that they submit to us,” Assistant District Attorney Clint Orem said at a news conference Monday. “We expect more of those individuals to be charged in the coming days.”

Pharmacies, a hair salon, a cellphone store, and state-run liquor outlets were among the other businesses targeted in several parts of the city. The suspects used social media to organize the flash mob-style of looting.

One woman with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, who live-streamed some of the rioting, is among those charged, and authorities said they are looking for additional ringleaders.

“We are very, very interested in bringing justice to people who view it as their task to encourage others to join them in breaking the law,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said.

Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal rebuked people who took part in what Krasner called “opportunistic crime.”

On this week’s episode of The Global Lane, founder and president of the Woodson Center, Robert Woodson, a Philadelphia native himself, said the looting and vandalism was not only occurring downtown, it’s also been happening in West Philadelphia. 

“It’s adversely affecting low-income people living there. The CVS Pharmacy has been destroyed. The center that conducts dialysis gone. People don’t realize the self-destruction that is going on in that city,” Woodson said. “But I think it’s horrible.”

“I think a lot of the responsibility is with that district attorney and the major’s office,” he continued. “They only arrested 470 people this year when in 2017, 1,700 were arrested. So I think the blame for a lot of that is in the hands of the district attorney and their lenient policies towards lawlessness.”

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When asked what he thinks caused the mass looting spree, Woodson pointed to a number of causes. 

“One, there’s just been permissiveness on the part of the authorities in prosecuting criminal behavior. You get more of what you reward and less of what you punish. Criminals have been rewarded by lenient response,” he explained. 

“Also, the attack on the police — the Defund the Police movement. There are fewer officers. More are retiring. In some places around the country, it’s 30 minutes before a 911 response because of the overall assault on policing,” Woodson noted. 

“The overemphasis on race as the cause of disparities is also taking its toll too,” he said. “Nothing is more lethal than telling people that they are exempt from any personal responsibility because of their race. These young people should be held accountable.”

“The question is, ‘Where are the parents of these kids?’” Woodson asked. 

Watch the entire interview with Woodson above and be sure to watch The Global Lane, Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on the CBN News Channel. You can also catch the program on the CBN News App and the CBN News YouTube Channel.