About 40 local police and Delaware County Sheriff’s officers arrested nine protesters and dismantled a four-day encampment on Trotter Lawn at Swarthmore College on the morning of May 3. During the arrest the protesters linked arms, but did not otherwise resist the arrests. However, the protesters reported to The Phoenix that the arrest was violent, in which police, some wearing face coverings, “threw them to the ground” and pinned their arms. One protester said that the police threatened him that “If I didn’t get on my feet [police said] that my head would hit the curb or the door of the paddy wagon.”
Many students and faculty filmed the event in shock. Professor of Engineering Matt Zucker, watched in disbelief stating, “I’ve never seen police arrest students on campus before.” College President Val Smith issued a May 3 email stating that she had “no choice” except to bring in the police because the protesters refused to negotiate an end to the encampment. A total of nine Swarthmore students (including a former student) had already received “interim suspensions.”
