Connection & Engagement

There have been multiple recent reports by Penn students and other community members of groups of young people slapping or striking individuals in the head on and near Penn’s campus, specifically in the area of 40th to 38th Streets, from Market Street to Locust Street. The victims are approached by one or more members of the group who then, unprovoked, strike the unknown victim with open hand or closed fist. We believe that this is connected to a nationwide social media trend. The Division of Public Safety is actively addressing this in multiple ways including adding additional police and security presence in the area and working with our City partners to stop the issue. We will continue, as long as necessary, to take steps to stop these events from happening so members of our community feel safe and unthreatened. dditionally, the Division of Public Safety has developed a few helpful risk reduction strategies outlined below:

As the Vice President for Public Safety, I wanted to communicate with you about some recent disruptive and, in a few cases, criminal activities that have occurred adjacent to our campus in the vicinity of 40th and Walnut Streets. Several of these incidents involving teenagers which we previously communicated about have resulted in arrests following our investigations. Late Tuesday night, Penn and Philadelphia Police responded to a report of an unaffiliated gunshot victim in the 4000 block of Walnut Street, following a dispute between two patrons of the movie theater located there. The suspect left the area moments after the shooting and Philadelphia Police, with our assistance, is pursuing this investigation.