By Mensah M. Dean, Photo: Kriston Jae Bethel/The Trace, The Trace, January 30 , 2023
On a frigid Saturday afternoon in mid-January, two men came to blows. They were seemingly oblivious to both blaring car horns and the police officer parked within sight in a marked patrol vehicle.
“I’m going to kill you!” one man shouted under the permanent shade of the elevated subway tracks near the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny Avenues. The men struck each other, then stumbled into the street, where several other men joined them in exchanging blows.
Behind an SUV parked nearby, a man had been handing out food to homeless people in Kensington, an area often referred to as the Badlands because of its open-air drug trade. He was momentarily distracted by the melee. “I rebuke violence!” he boomed. “I rebuke all violence in the name of Jesus.” The fighting men kept slugging until they ran out of steam, and parted without shedding any blood.
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