Violent arrests of highschool college students protesting ICE shook a Pennsylvania city. Now officers are investigating | EUROtoday

Local officers in Pennsylvania are investigating the police response to an anti-ICE protest on Friday the place college students and officers acquired into a number of bodily confrontations.

“Our office is conducting an independent investigation into the police response during this incident,” the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office stated of the protest in Quakertown in a press release on Facebook on Saturday.

The workplace stated it was dedicated to a “thorough and transparent review” and referred to as on members of the general public to submit any footage of the tense encounter, which resulted in upwards of six arrests.

About 35 college students walked out of Quakertown Senior High School on Friday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts, defying a choice from faculty officers to shutter a deliberate demonstration over what directors stated was a “threat of violence” in opposition to the occasion.

The college students are amongst lots of throughout the nation who’ve walked out of sophistication or joined demonstrations in opposition to ICE, going through detention and different educational punishment.

More than 300 college students at Woodbridge Senior High School have been just lately suspended after becoming a member of protests with different colleges in Virginia.

Similar scenes have performed out in colleges from Maryland to Oklahoma and Utah.

Accounts differ of what led to the confrontations between college students and police in Bucks County.

A extensively circulated video of the clashes reveals a person in plainclothes placing a woman in a chokehold.

Eyewitnesses and the native Bucks County Courier Times newspaper recognized the person as Quakertown Borough Police Chief Scott McElree.

The Independent has requested remark from the police division and McElree.

One demonstrator who witnessed the encounter informed the newspaper that the scholars have been unaware McElree was an officer.

“Everyone started to beat on him because he was grabbing at random kids,” the coed stated.

A bystander who noticed the confrontation stated the state of affairs escalated additional when a male pupil tried to assist the feminine pupil, prompting officers to power the male pupil to the bottom.

“The situation completely escalated,” she informed the Philadelphia Inquirer. “There were multiple grown men getting in the faces of the children, spit flying out of their mouths.”

Another witness informed 6ABC that different adults appeared to get entangled within the combating because the scene devolved into chaos.

“There were other grown men who were bystanders who were getting involved in the situation as well,” the witness stated. “They were getting in children’s faces, and one ended up in handcuffs.”

Police informed the Inquirer that “five to six juveniles and one adult have been taken into custody.”

Officers stated college students engaged in harmful conduct together with getting into visitors, throwing snow balls, kicking vehicles, damaging property, and assaulting officers.

Community members demanded accountability after the clashes.

“When young people are involved in an encounter with law enforcement, the standard for care, restraint and adherence to policy are high and must be adhered to,” Bucks County NAACP President Adrienne King stated at a information convention on Saturday exterior the police division.

“This is not controversial. It is expected,” she stated. “Video circulating publicly has raised serious questions in our community. Those questions deserve answers, and we are here to ask for those answers today.”

A girl on the convention who gave her identify as Allison stated her stepdaughter was amongst those that have been arrested.

“Our daughter was wrongfully accused,” she said. “She was deliberately sought after and she was assaulted. She was thrown into the ground and she was a choked. We want her home safe. We want respect for our daughter and for the other students like her who were there.”

As of Sunday evening, more than 5,000 people had signed a change.org petition demanding McElree’s resignation.

It is unclear whether anyone who was arrested during the protest remains in detention.

Arrested students were taken to Bucks County Youth Center, which declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.

The center directed questions to Bucks County Juvenile Court, which is closed on Sundays.

Bucks County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Manuel Gamiz Jr. told the Inquirer that the major storm expected to hit the East Coast on Sunday night prompted the closure of the Bucks County Justice Center, which could delay legal actions regarding the arrested students.

“Once students left school grounds without authorization and walked into town, deviating from the planned walkout route, they were no longer under the district’s custodial control or supervision, and we have almost no legal ability to regulate or investigate their behavior,” Dr. Lisa Hoffman, performing superintendent of Quakertown Community School District, wrote in a press release on Sunday.

“Administrators were not on the scene in the borough and were not in any way involved in student arrests,” she stated.

Students aren’t the one ones criticizing ICE within the space.

In January, the county sheriff’s workplace ended a collaboration settlement it had with the immigration company, citing group issues.

“When large numbers of our residents are afraid to call 911, or come to court and testify, that makes our entire community less safe,” just lately elected Bucks County Sheriff Danny Ceisler stated of the choice on the time. “This is not a public safety problem for immigrants. This is a public safety problem for everyone.”

This week, Bucks County commissioners voted unanimously to bar ICE from organising processing and detention facilities at warehouses inside county limits.

Bucks County, about an hour’s drive north of Philadelphia, narrowly voted for Trump within the 2024 presidential election.