Dmytro Nayda

On October 26, 2020, Walter Wallace Jr. was shot and killed by two Philadelphia police officers. Following the death of Wallace, the city of Philadelphia soon fell into a state of unrest.

Many people rose up to protest the actions of the two police officers in West Philadelphia, but in no way was it peaceful. A variety of businesses are cleaning up and making repairs after numerous break-ins. Many stores decided to board up their windows and doors in order to protect their businesses. That following Wednesday, the protesting and the looting did not stop. Not far from the location of the protests, stores like Walmart, Lowe’s, and Five Below were broken into.

Due to the severity of the destruction caused, the Mayor of Philadelphia Jim Kenney imposed a city-wide curfew Wednesday that went into effect at 9PM Wednesday night. Even the national guard has been called in to help mitigate the destruction caused by the protesters. Small groups have been apprehended by the police for violating the curfew rules.

However, the protestors are not the only people who have been affected by the curfew. Ihor Holubets, a waiter at the restaurant Melody located in the Leo Mall plaza said “It was already hard getting work because of COVID, but now because of curfew we can’t stay open past 9 o’clock. I had a party I was supposed to serve on Friday but now I’m out of a job for that day.”

A variety of small businesses that rely on foot traffic or reservation such as restaurants and food trucks will lose a part of their usual business, and with a decreased amount of customers they will suffer losses. When will the destruction end?