State College Borough committee to host forum on police response to Penn State protest
After receiving multiple informal complaints and concerns surrounding the police response at last week’s Penn State protest/counter-protest, a State College Borough committee is organizing a public forum Thursday for community members to share their experiences.
The borough’s Community Oversight Board, which was established last year to help oversee the State College Police Department, is hosting an open forum at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Municipal Building (243 S. Allen St.). The forum is expected to last about 90 minutes, potentially longer depending on attendance.
“I just want folks to know the intention here is absolutely for them to have a safe space to speak,” said oversight board vice-chair Barrett Marshall, legal director for Centre Safe. “There’s nothing more powerful than someone speaking from their true, direct individual experience. And my hope is that by sharing those things, by creating a space where folks can share their experiences, we may be able to gain some traction on some of these practices and policies and make some change.”
Although the oversight board is hoping to focus on the State College Police Department — it has no authority over other police departments — a representative for University Police and Public Safety is expected to be in attendance. (They will listen but, because of the SCPD focus, will not comment or field questions.) Borough administration is also expected to be on-hand.
The forum comes a week after numerous students and residents publicly questioned the police response outside an on-campus event involving the founder of the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center labels a general hate group. The event drew widespread scrutiny, and Penn State eventually canceled it about 40 minutes prior to its start time due to “the threat of escalating violence.”
Multiple police departments outside of the university had a presence at the event — including Pennsylvania State Police and officers from Bellefonte, Patton Township, Spring Township and State College.
According to Marshall, primary concerns they heard centered on the mounted state troopers and the apparent inaction of police officers after a pepper-spray incident involving a hate group supporter. With several people clad in black and covering their faces — one of whom gave a Nazi salute — one eventually doused protesters with pepper spray, before video showed them running past police without getting stopped.
Neither witnesses nor the CDT, which was on-hand, spotted the perpetrators being detained. A university spokesperson acknowledged no arrests stemming from that incident have so far been made, but it is continuing to investigate. (One total arrest has so far been made, as a student was charged with three misdemeanors in an unrelated incident during the protest.)
“At barest minimum, we want the force to hear what folks are saying and what their experiences were,” Marshall said. “And our hope is that really this is more about a dialogue, maybe some education pieces for community members and also a dialogue between the community and police so circumstances like this either can be prevented in the future, or at least everyone is entering these situations better-educated as to what might go on.
“One of the things I’m running into often is that, particularly students who are involved in the protest, didn’t really understand the purpose of the police presence. And I think that confusion has led to — hopefully, not ill will at this point — but enough confusion that we could be verging on that. And, of course, we want to prevent that.”
Marshall expects the public forum to open with a “very brief” explanation of the oversight board, followed by an introduction to certain community leaders so attendees know who’s in the room. The oversight board then intends to ask community members to speak, at 2-3 minutes at a time, with the borough — at the end — then offering a statement or potentially taking questions.
The forum will only be available in-person. There is no virtual option.
“Our goal here, really, is to focus on the voices of the community members and make sure they have a platform,” Marshall added, “because we know that’s really our job — to elevate their voices and make sure they’re heard.”
