‘Kensington Beach’ Instagram Creator Michael Coyle Speaks at RNC

Michael Coyle, the Philadelphia native who founded the Instagram account “Kensington Beach,” which features shocking and often disturbing scenes of human suffering at the epicenter of the opioid epidemic, spoke at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night.

The theme of the evening was “Make America Safe Again,” and speakers painted a grim picture of an America plagued by rising crime, even though crime has decreased in most gigantic cities this year. Coyle spoke to a crowd that included GOP politicians such as Senate candidate Dave McCormick and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Coyle spoke at the end of the convention’s second night, after former President Donald Trump arrived to hear speakers from the VIP sector of the arena.

He introduced himself as a resident of one of the “worst neighborhoods in America.”

“Our streets are plagued by drugs,” Coyle said of Kensington. “You’ll find human excrement outside your shop or someone dead on your steps. Politicians say nice things or clean up the streets for a few weeks during an election year or when a celebrity visits.”

The district has attracted national attention and has been visited by many politicians. Republicans often cite it as an example of crime and drug operate in huge cities.

Kensington is the epicenter of Philadelphia’s opioid epidemic. More than a third of the 2,500 drug and narcotics law violations reported by police in 2023 occurred in Kensington.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, a Democrat who took office in January, has made cleaning up Kensington a top priority of her administration and has vowed to shut down the drug trade in the area. The city recently dismantled encampments and increased police presence in the area as part of a larger, multi-stage public safety campaign.

In a provocative but brief speech, Coyle, wearing a Kensington Beach cap, told the audience how “tranq,” a fresh drug, is affecting the crisis worsened.

“Do you know what rotting meat smells like?” he asked the delegates. “The people of my city know,” he said.

Coyle blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for “pouring fentanyl at our border.” He called Trump “the leader who will end the urban nightmare.”

Although fentanyl caused most drug overdose deaths in 2023, the Republican Party says the ‘open border’ is the main cause of those deaths is an exaggeration. Fentanyl is largely smuggled by US citizens through legal ports of entry, and not by migrants sneaking into the country. Border guards have seized an increasing number of illegal fentanylcounted in hundreds of millions of tablets, under Biden.

The number of social media has increased stories documenting the opioid crisis in Kensington in recent years, some of which have been criticized for exploiting human suffering. In In some cases, users even monetize their content.

In 2019, Coyle told The Inquirer that he started the page to raise awareness of the crisis. He said he named the page Kensington Beach because people suffering from addiction and lying on the sidewalks reminded him of people lounging on the coast.

“I’m just raising awareness of what’s going on in my neighborhood,” Coyle said at the time. “It’s already here. It’s been here for years. And I’m just a guy who just started an Instagram page and it’s getting a lot of attention.”

On the RNC stage Tuesday, he said he “started a nonprofit to help the neighborhood I loved and shared videos online about the horrors we live in.” He also said he organized a needle cleanup there.

After finishing his speech, Coyle raised his hat and said, “Kensington Beach for Trump!” before leaving the stage.

Coyle was the second Philadelphian to appear onstage at the Republican National Convention this week. Philadelphia-based model Amber Rose spoke at Convention Monday. The Trump campaign tried to highlight “ordinary Americans” among the politicians appearing over the show’s four nights.