Two sides of Kensington were on display Monday during District Attorney Larry Krasner’s weekly news conference.
Prosecutors discussed an ongoing case against a man accused of trafficking drugs in the neighborhood, and community organizers celebrated the opening of a new park that spotlights the toll of gun violence.
“We’re all aware of the heaviness of gun violence and opioids in Kensington, but what is also here is resilience and a defiant hope and community,” said Shane Claiborne, founder of RAWtools Philly, who helped bring the reimagined space to life.
Rifles, switches and cocaine
Authorities in late April raided a home on the 800 block of W. Venango Street and arrested 35-year-old Edgardo Rivera. Detectives had previously spotted Rivera involved in multiple drug transactions in Kensington, according to prosecutors.
Investigators, during the search, recovered nine guns – among them, two handguns equipped with “switches” to increase firing speed and an AR-15 assault rifle, Assistant District Attorney Keion Cook told reporters. High-capacity ammo drums were also discovered, he added.
In addition, Rivera was caught with an estimated $19,000 worth of crack cocaine, cocaine and marijuana and $10,000 in cash, according to the DA’s Office.
A judge held all charges, including conspiracy and multiple drug and gun offenses, for trial following a preliminary hearing last week.
Rivera’s attorney, Jeremy-Evan Alva, was perplexed that Krasner highlighted the case nearly three months after his client was arrested.
“I try my cases in a courtroom, not at press conferences,” Alva told Metro. “My client’s innocent until proven guilty, and we are going to exercise every one of his legal rights and let the judge decide.”
He described his client as a “hardworking family man”; Krasner referred to Rivera as a “drug dealer.”
‘A thing of the past’
Deconstructed firearms obtained through buyback events have been arranged inside a sculpture at the center of Peace Park, the new space dedicated Sunday at H and Potter streets.
Artist Christopher Jacob Hammes based the design on a fire pit, after local teenagers participating in a blacksmithing and woodworking program asked him how to make one.
“It’s displayed in a museological style, as though it’s an archeological excavation,” he explained. “Part of this is a little bit of utopian thinking. I was thinking about how, maybe in the future, we’ll have a society where gun violence is a thing of the past, and maybe we can look at these objects as though they’re fossils.”
Four pieces of heavy-duty glass will eventually be added, and the memorial will light up every 11 minutes, signifying how often a person dies by gunfire in the United States. Circular benches inscribed with the words “a better world is possible” surround the piece.
The project has been in the works for two years, although efforts to improve the corner lot extend back further. A mural was completed on the wall of an adjoining house a decade ago.
The Simple Way, a local nonprofit co-founded by Claiborne, purchased an abandoned house at the site for $1 in 1998 and built a community center, he said. It burned down, along with several adjacent homes, when an abandoned city-owned factory caught fire in 2007.
Claiborne is involved in numerous ventures, and RAWtools Philly accepts unwanted guns and turns them into garden tools. The organization partnered with Hammes and Mural Arts Philadelphia to create the park.
Krasner credits such groups and initiatives with helping Philadelphia reach its lowest murder total in more than 50 years, through late July.
The district attorney said his office has used forfeiture money – cash confiscated through cases like Rivera’s – to fund grants for RAWtools and a host of other organizations.
“You might say it’s recycling drug dealer money back into helping the neighborhoods that were harmed,” Krasner said.
