Eric Holder Visits Philly Today

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will visit Philly today to talk about policing issues, Newsworks reports, but only to a select group of officials meeting behind closed doors.

Rob Kane, who studies police authority and accountability at Drexel University, said the Obama administration is in the midst of a “legitimacy crisis in American urban policing.” It was sparked, he said, in part by grand juries failing to indict police officers in Ferguson and Staten Island.

Kane said keeping the speech closed to the public helps maintain an orderly audience and creates a platform for delivering an uninterrupted message.

“If you’re up on stage, and you’re trying to convey a point and look as if you have control over a situation, then you don’t want to be heckled, and you don’t want it on camera that you’re being heckled, or facing resistance,” Kane said.

The event is at 3 p.m. at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia.