PHILADELPHIA – Some residents in the Philadelphia suburb of Quakertown are calling for the police chief to resign after a scuffle between police and high school students protesting immigration enforcement policies left several juveniles in custody for four days.
Video circulating online shows an older man in street clothes approach a group of young protesters outside a delicatessen and put his arm around the neck of a teenage girl as other teens swing at him and they both fall to the ground.
Recommended Videos
The footage taken by bystanders captures only part of the encounter and does not show what happened before things turned physical. Afterward, students can be seen picking up binders and folders scattered on the ground.
The man was later identified as 72-year-old Police Chief Scott McElree, who also serves as the borough manager — the town’s top administrative official responsible for overseeing daily operations.
Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan, a former federal prosecutor, is investigating. McElree did not return messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press at his home and workplace.
The group had staged a walkout from Quakertown Community High School, leaving the building chanting and carrying handmade signs protesting immigration enforcement policies.
“No more ICE!” students are heard chanting in video footage posted on social media, before McElree enters the frame. Another officer, who appears to be wearing police identification, tells students the protest "doesn't need to be in the street.”
“It's a peaceful protest. We're peacefully protesting!” a student can be heard saying in response. The camera pivots to another adult man, who appears to pull the chief away from the girl.
McElree can be seen talking to other officers on the scene after the scuffle before getting into a vehicle.
“In abandoning his job and his mission on Friday afternoon, Chief McElree effectively was acting as a counterprotester, albeit one with the ability to arrest people. Quakertown deserves better," said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
The Quakertown Police Department, in a statement Friday, said five or six demonstrators were taken into custody after the group became disruptive while protesting Immigration and Custody Enforcement actions across the country. The group had staged a walkout from Quakertown Community High School.
“Some participants began engaging in disruptive behavior, including throwing snowballs at vehicles, kicking cars, and damaging property, such as tearing a side mirror from a car. Officers issued additional warnings to maintain civil,” the police statement said.
The students -- who were detained throughout the weekend and again Monday when a snowstorm closed county offices – were due in juvenile court Tuesday for bail hearings, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office. The hearings are closed to the public, and no further information was immediately available.
Calls left Tuesday for other borough officials were not immediately returned.
Speakers at a borough council meeting Monday evening called for the students’ release, and more than 9,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the chief’s resignation. Quakertown, about 35 miles north of Philadelphia, has about 9,300 residents.
“The police should have been there to facilitate the demonstration, ensuring that the students could safely exercise their rights to assemble and speak out freely as guaranteed by our Constitution,” Walczak said. “They failed.”