Taylor | City of Philadelphia PHILADELPHIA – The City of Philadelphia Police claims that the arrest of a street preacher locally known as “Philly Jesus” when he was evangelizing in a public park just before Christmas in 2019 was justified, per a policy publicly available to citizens and any insinuation of the contrary should lead to the case being dismissed. Plaintiff Michael Grant first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Feb. 7 versus the City and 11 unnamed Philadelphia Police Department officers. Grant, 33, described himself in the lawsuit a street preacher and evangelist who maintains no permanent home and earns no regular income, outside of the charity of friends and family. Grant is also known among many Philadelphia citizens as “Philly Jesus,” due to his perceived physical resemblance to Jesus Christ.