Cherelle Parker says Gov. Josh Shapiro ‘made his position clear’ on not deploying National Guard to Philadelphia
Parker had said she'd consider bringing National Guard to Kensington. But that requires the governor's approval, and Shapiro said Tuesday “that’s not something I’m contemplating at this time.”
Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker said Thursday that she’ll continue to discuss options with Gov. Josh Shapiro to improve public safety after the governor seemed to reject her embrace of deploying the National Guard in the city.
”The governor made his position clear,” she said. “We will sit down at the table and we will do what we’ve always done, which is figure out a way [forward].”
Parker said on the campaign trail last month that the National Guard would be “a part of the solution” to shut down the open-air drug market in Kensington, an idea that prompted immediate pushback from some who called the tactic heavy-handed.
But any deployment of the Guard requires approval from the governor, and on Tuesday, Shapiro told reporters that sending the Guard to Kensington is “not something I’m contemplating at this time.”
» READ MORE: To fix Kensington, a new Philly lawmaker has a controversial proposal: Stronger law enforcement
Parker said Thursday, during her first news conference since winning Tuesday’s mayoral election, that her initial embrace of the Guard, which came during a town hall meeting when she was asked whether she would be open to bringing them in, was positive because she “would not take any constitutional and/or legal tool off the table.”
She said that, for example, she’d also be open to additional assistance from state and federal partners, including state police and the Drug Enforcement Administration.