PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Some residents in the Philadelphia suburb of Quakertown are calling for the police chief to resign after he and other officers scuffled with high school students protesting immigration enforcement policies last week. Several juveniles were arrested and kept in custody for four days.
Video posted to social media showed the tussle between students and officers. It’s unclear what started it. But at one point an older man in civilian clothes – later identified as 72-year-old Chief Scott McElree — approached and put his arm around the neck of a teenage girl.
Other teens took swings at McElree, who fell to the ground and dragged the girl with him.
Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan, the former county solicitor, said his office is investigating the incident. Meantime, the Quakertown Borough Council met Monday night, and angry citizens called for the firing of McElree, who also serves as borough manager — the town’s top administrative official responsible for overseeing daily operations in the community of about 9,300 people.
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 Customs 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.
“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.”