Officer Frank Tepper
2651 E Elkhart St
Philadelphia, PA 19134
(215) 423-5755
“He executed our son.” – Billy Panas’s father
On the night of November 21st, 2009 21-year-old Billy Panas and his friends were walking to a Chinese restaurant on Elkhart St. in Philadelphia when they stumbled upon a fight in front of the home of off-duty cop Frank Tepper. Billy was in the middle of trying to break up the fight when an enraged Tepper charged into the crowd with a pistol, turned towards Billy, and shot him in the chest at point-blank range. Billy died shortly thereafter.
On November 21st Billy Panas became a part of the ever growing list of young men’s lives stolen by the police in this country. This list grows daily.
On December 6th hundreds of people marched with the Panas family demanding justice for their murdered son. Unsurprisingly, Frank Tepper has remained free without charges. The city of Philadelphia even gave him a cushy desk job while it conducted an investigation. Only recently (almost two full months after the murder) was Tepper suspended from the force pending termination. Criminal charges have yet to be filed.
“The police become necessary in human society only at that junction in society where it is split between those who have and those who aint got.” – Omali Yeshitela
The efforts of Billy’s family to get the District Attorney to charge Tepper with murder are understandable. Their only son was brutally murdered down the street from his house, they obviously want justice. But we can’t forget that the District Attorney, the city, and the police are all members of the same murderous system that has been destroying lives for thousands of years.
Charging Frank Tepper will not bring justice to the streets of Philadelphia.
The only thing that will bring justice to the streets of Philadlephia, and to the streets of all of our cities, is for neighbors, coworkers, family members, everybody in our cities to rise up in resistance to this capitalist system. Fascism, classism, racism is all interlinked. This is not an isolated incident as some might lead you to believe. Frank Tepper was not just some “bad apple”.
We have to abolish the police because of what interests they serve and who they protect. They are the enforcers of the system of domination, a system that must be destroyed at all costs.
Police get what they deserve
- On The Prowl
ontheprowlnews@gmail.com
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