Community Oversight Board to Host Forum on Police Response to Penn State Protest

State College’s Community Oversight Board will host a special meeting this week to discuss the police response to a controversial event on Penn State’s campus last week.

Starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, the board will convene at the State College Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St. The forum will give community members a chance to express their views and experiences surrounding the law enforcement response to protests against an event that was slated to bring controversial speakers to Penn State.

At the meeting, community members can speak for a few minutes at a time in front of their peers, as well as borough officials and law enforcement leaders. The oversight board meeting will not offer a virtual component.

Gavin McInnes, the founder of the far-right Proud Boys organization, was set to speak at Penn State on Oct. 24. But in the hours before the student-organized event’s scheduled start, large crowds of protestors formed outside the Thomas Building on campus. Local and state police arrived in riot gear and on horseback to control the crowds.

Alex Stein, a self-proclaimed “professional troll” who joined McInnes on Oct. 24, appeared before protestors and attempted to agitate them. A protestor wound up spitting on him.

Soon after, citing “the threat of escalating violence,” Penn State canceled the event just 40 minutes before it was expected to begin. Though the university did not specify how demonstrations “regrettably turned violent,” a group of masked individuals entered the crowd around 7 p.m. and deployed pepper spray on protestors.

Multiple people at the scene reported the use of pepper spray by individuals who were not police or protestors. Video by independent journalists Ford Fischer and Zach Roberts showed the incident as it happened. Later, Penn State’s police department said its officers did not use pepper spray. Officers at the scene did not appear to pursue the person who deployed the pepper spray.

As crowds gradually dispersed, some began marching across campus down Pollock Road. Others stayed around the Thomas Building, where a line of police, including some on horseback, eventually advanced to clear the area and form a perimeter.

On Oct. 25, Penn State University Police and Public Safety said it arrested one individual during the protest. A 23-year-old student was charged with one misdemeanor count each of disorderly conduct, defiant trespassing and failure to disperse upon an official order.

The State College Borough Council formed the community oversight board for the police department in August 2021. The board seeks to promote dialogue between the borough, its police and its community. The nine-member group has auditing, monitoring and data analysis functions, as well as limited investigative ability.

Visit the borough’s website for more information about its Community Oversight Board.