Philadelphia police cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters outside the University of Pennsylvania campus early Friday, making arrests and ending a two-week standoff between administrators and student protesters. .
Video from the scene taken by one of the demonstrators showed a group of demonstrators near the Benjamin Franklin statue on College Green being surrounded by police in riot gear. . Police barricaded Locust Walk and closed a portion of Walnut Street to traffic. Some of the demonstrators were taken away in police vans. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were arrested.
Sahil Muhammad, a 23-year-old Temple University graduate who joined the protesters before dawn Friday, said police began arresting people after 6 a.m. and when officers saw him he had his legs lifted and was forced into a camp. He said he was carried out of the earth. He said he was filming a video.
“The police literally grabbed me and took me off the premises,” he said.
Muhammad was taken to the corner of 34th Street and Walnut Street, where he joined a group of protesters shouting chants and trying to block the police van from leaving.
Mr Muhammad's video shows a group of about 40 protesters standing several yards away from a line of police in riot gear on College Green.
The move to clear the encampment came a day after Gov. Josh Shapiro said it was “past time” for the Penn administration to clear the encampment. “The situation at the University of Pennsylvania has become even more unstable and out of control over the past 24 hours,” he said. speak at an unrelated press conference Near Pittsburgh.
The Governor is a Democrat and a non-voting member of Penn's Board of Trustees.