June 16-22, 2005

city beat

Spurnin' Rubbers

chased away: Cited for obstructing a highway for distributing condoms, Malika Lvy may not continue outreach efforts on South Street. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

HIV outreach workers tussle with police on South Street.

by Mike Newall

The "Condom People" — as patrons call them — are easily found: Fridays, Sixth and South streets, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. They rarely take a night off, have a large and loyal clientele and are always stocked full with free rubbers.

For eight years, the Youth Health Empowerment Project (Y-HEP), a city-funded HIV-prevention program aimed at teens and adolescents, have conducted outreach from a small folding table in front of Tower Records. They distribute hundreds of condoms and dental dams (small latex sheets that prevent the spread of STDs during oral sex), plus directories of health care centers, HIV testing sites and teen-crisis hot lines.

"They do great work," says Joseph Cronauer, Philadelphia's Assistant Health Commissioner, "and are very successful at providing HIV/STD prevention to high-risk youth."

The Y-HEP workers are young, polite, and, by now, as normal a part of the streetscape as the skateboard punks, barflies and tourists. Tower Records happily lends sidewalk space and the city has an agreement with the Police Department that allows them to set up shop.

"Some cops are regulars," says Y-HEP's soft-spoken youth development coordinator, Malika Lévy, 32. "They get condoms and are friendly."

That is, until three weeks ago, when two South Street police officers detained Lévy and, allegedly, threatened the young Y-HEP workers with jail.

"They used to protect us," says Markia Powell, an 18-year-old outreach worker. "Now, for some reason, they're handcuffing us."

It was shortly after 7 p.m. on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. South Street was alive with activity. Lévy dropped the youth workers in front of Tower and parked the van. She came back to find a sidewalk preacher browbeating the group.

According to the workers, police Officers Sean Elkins and William Gress approached the table and told the man to beat it. After Lévy thanked the officers, whom she had never met, she read the names on their uniforms. They asked if she had a sidewalk permit. She said no and explained their agreement with Tower. According to the other Y-HEP workers, the officers seemed to disapprove of the group's materials — which included life-size replicas of a male phallus and female pelvis — and hostilely told them to quiet down and pack up. As the group gathered their things, Lévy says she calmly tried to explain the situation. The officers weren't hearing any of it.

"The one cop was so angry," says 20-year-old Amelia Voong. "It was like we did something against his family."

"Since you don't know how to keep your mouth shut," Lévy says one of the officers replied, "I'm giving you a citation for blocking the sidewalk."

"The cops laughed at me when I requested their badge numbers," says Lévy, "and handcuffed me when I asked them to explain the citation."

"If you don't stop talking," Lévy says the cops told her, "we'll lock the kids up too."

More officers arrived and a crowd formed.

"It was humiliating," says Voong. "We're out there helping people and being treated like criminals."

Lévy says the cops asked everyone for ID. When Sean Wynes, 17, reached for his track bag to fish out his wallet, Lévy says Gress put his hand on his gun holster and told him to "drop it."

"It was crazy," says Voong. "We were all scared and confused."

Lévy was driven to the mini-precinct located in the 10th Street Whole Foods Market and handcuffed to a railing.

"The handcuffs were so tight," says Lévy, "my hands turned green."

About an hour later, Lévy was released. She has an August court date for an "obstructing the highway" citation.

Police and health officials, as well as Michael Hinson, the mayor's liaison to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, have since met with Lévy. They describe the incident as an unfortunate misunderstanding and a breakdown of communication. The two officers, they say, were relatively new to South Street and unfamiliar with Y-HEP's contract with the city.

"We understand they have sanction from the health department," says James Tiano, chief inspector of the police department. "We ask they contact the district commander on days they do outreach so everybody's on the same page. We're going to work with them to make sure the program runs smoothly."

A department representative will meet with the young Y-HEP workers and an internal affairs investigation will be conducted if Lévy chooses to file a complaint. Y-HEP is free to resume their outreach efforts, he adds, but asks that they leave a little more space for pedestrians.

Lévy has not decided whether she'll file a complaint and is hesitant about continuing the South Street outreach.

"We never before felt threatened by the cops," she says. "But now we do."