Philadelphia Cracks Down on Notorious Kensington Open-Air Drug Market, Ground Zero of ‘Tranq’ Epidemic: Will Anyone Be Prosecuted?
Philadelphia’s mayor, like other Democratic leaders, is taking a tougher-on-crime approach. But ‘nobody talks about the prosecution aspect,’ one observer tells the Sun.
![Spencer Platt/Getty Images](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwp.nysun.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F07%2Fkensington-drugs.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
As Philadelphia plans a clean-up of a neighborhood that’s home to the largest open-air drug market on the East Coast, questions are emerging about whether the tough-on-crime talk by the city’s Democratic mayor will be backed up by actual prosecutions.
The city is planning to clear a homeless encampment on Kensington Avenue on Wednesday, in part of a larger strategy by Philadelphia’s mayor, Cherelle Parker, to revitalize the city’s notorious Kensington neighborhood — a squalid zone of homelessness, drug use, and prostitution – which has become “ground zero” for Pennsylvania’s opioid epidemic and the larger “tranq” crisis ravaging the East Coast.
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