‘Police just stood there.’ Penn State students, community question response over protests
Numerous Penn State students and community members have openly questioned the university’s police response Monday night — one that allowed a hate group sympathizer to shower pepper spray on protesters opposing the (eventually canceled) speech by the Proud Boys founder — but the university shared few answers while it says it continues to investigate and review.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the perpetrator was arrested. A university spokesperson acknowledged one misdemeanor arrest was made for disorderly conduct and defiant trespass, but they declined to say whether it was a protester or hate group member. Multiple witnesses told the CDT they did not see police detain the man with the pepper spray, however, and a video appears to show the man responsible walking by multiple police officers without being stopped.
“You’re just going to stand there and do nothing?” one student shouted at police. “F--- you!” another student yelled.
Robert Zeigler, Democrat candidate for state House District 171, was on-hand for the protest that numbered in the hundreds. Although he acknowledged police have a difficult job, he couldn’t understand the response.
“The thing that was the most disappointing to me was when one of the Proud Boys started spraying pepper spray at people,” Zeigler said. “And I was about 10 feet away from that, and police just stood there and didn’t react at all.”
Both the Pennsylvania State Police and State College Police Department declined to directly address the incident, referring all questions to the university.
A CDT reporter and photographer were situated behind the several masked men — at least one of whom was clad in tactical gear, and another who gave a Nazi salute — while they shouted back and forth with protesters. One man aimed Counter Assault Bear Deterrent at protesters, while another held a different canister that several people described as pepper spray.
When a protester stepped forward, one of the hate group sympathizers began spraying the red-orange stream at protesters, who scurried away to avoid the stinging mist. One police officer broke out his baton but stayed back as the man jogged away.
“I witnessed several officers smacking their batons against their hands as people, including myself, tried to warn them that a ‘Proud Boy’ agitator was threatening random people with pepper spray and was about to deploy it,” said Chelsey Sweet, a member of the progressive activist group Indivisible: Mayday. “They heard us but turned and began walking in the opposite direction as journalists and protesters were maced.
“I understand that the police may have been trying to avoid making arrests for fear of escalation, but they were doing nothing to protect students from the actual threats on the scene and everything to make the students’ voices feel unheard.”
When asked if university leaders gave the police a directive to avoid making arrests, or why the perpetrator was not stopped, a spokesperson said, “As this is an open investigation, (it) would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
It was also not clear how many police were on scene, as a spokesperson told the CDT it does not release such information. But, in addition to state police and university police, officers were also spotted from Bellefonte, Patton Township, Spring Township and State College. PSU also did not yet have a cost estimate related to security.
Within 20 minutes of the pepper spray being deployed, university police issued an alert calling the crowd an “unlawful disturbance,” with people told to leave the area or be subject to arrest. A little more than 10 minutes after that, the event titled “Stand Back & Stand By” was officially canceled due to “the threat of escalating violence.” (The university initially wrote that demonstrations turned violent when protesters and police officers were pepper sprayed, but deleted that part in an updated news release.)
One female student lay on the ground, with 10 empty water bottles around her, while a friend continued to pour water over her eyes. Another woman stared at the sky while milk was poured on her face. Another student, who hurried away from the event, emptying water bottle after water bottle into his eyes, said he was simply caught in the cross-fire.
“It feels like there’s fire in my face and my eyes,” said Sean Hartman, a journalism student who attended the protest in hopes to interview and expose the Proud Boys. “This is one of the worst pains I’ve ever felt in my life, I’m not going to lie.”
In an open message to the Penn State community, university President Neeli Bendapudi said there didn’t appear to be any serious injuries. Mount Nittany Health did not respond to a request for comment.
Before the pepper spray, there were several other acts of provocation and violence. Lesser-known speaker Alex Stein, a self-proclaimed “professional troll” whose podcast was banned from YouTube for violating hate speech guidelines, walked toward protesters with the fervor of a football player trying to pump up the crowd. He spoke to the crowd with a smile, as he and his colleagues recorded the interactions. “I’ll be honest, probably the best content of the whole show,” he said.
One female student spit on him after he uttered some crude comments. But he did not appear to be touched otherwise. He tore up another protester’s sign.
The CDT witnessed one scuffle in front of an entrance to the event, involving a man wearing black and yellow Proud Boys colors. It was not clear if he provoked the crowd or was simply attempting to enter, but police quickly broke up the scuffle and brought in mounted police moments later to better clear the area. After the event’s cancellation, during protesters’ victory march of sorts, one apparent hate group sympathizer jumped in front of a student organizer, tapped his own cheek and dared the organizer to hit him. The sympathizer eventually ran off when no one took the bait.
Students and community members took to social media to express their disagreement with the police response. “Our campus police watched and did nothing,” one said on Twitter. “Seems police are here in this case to protect the White Supremacist; not students,” said another. “I guarantee, if it were a BLM (Black Lives Matter ) protest, they would have had batons flailing,” said another.
Several attendees spoke to the CDT but did not want their names used. Still, they echoed similar sentiments.
Zeigler didn’t mind speaking up.
“The fact they are supposed to be protecting people and they let the Proud Boys go and not do anything at all — that, to me, is disappointing,” he said. “And that highlights to me the fact that change needs to happen.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 5:09 PM.
