UPDATED: 5:04 p.m., Thursday:
The protestor being arrested.
Credit: Ryan W Russell/ Facebook screengrab
Newtown Township police said the incident at Bucks County Community College’s main campus remained under review as of late Thursday afternoon.
Police said they were called around 12:15 p.m. to the campus for the two protestors causing a disturbance. The man was holding a sign and the woman was video recording the incident.
The male protestor’s sign was damaged by a student, police said. However, they did not mention the following incident which let to the male protestor being placed in handcuffs.
No injuries were reported.
Police said the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office is helping them review the incident.
Original Post:
Students and radical religious protestors squared off on the Newtown Township campus on Bucks County Community College Thursday afternoon.
Police were not immediately available for comment, but students told NewtownPANow.com that police had put one person in handcuffs and appeared to be talking to several others.
The incident happened around 12:30 p.m. when a man wearing a shirt that said “Obey Jesus” and featuring “homo” and “Muslim” with a red strike through the words was protesting in the quad at the Newtown campus. Community college officials said there was a woman with him.
The male protestor, who appeared to be middle aged, carried a sign that had a list that included “porno freaks,” cow worshipers,” “Jews who disobey Jesus,” “Racists,” “Female enablers,” “cutters,” “emos,” “rebellious women,” “whoremongers,” “drunks,” “gangster rappers” and more. The sign featured “Obey Jesus or Hellfire” in large red text at the bottom on a poster and biblical quotes on the back.
A close-up picture of the sign.
Credit: Submitted
A student ripping down the protestor’s sign.
Credit: Ryan W Russell/ Facebook screengrab
Based on accounts and online video, the protest went south as more and more students surrounded the man with the sign and a small numbers began to act up. Campus security and Newtown Township police officers worked to separate the man with the sign from the students when a bystander ran up and grabbed the religious protestor’s sign. As police and bystanders rushed in, the protestor appeared to follow the man who pulled down his sign before being taken into handcuffs.
Following the melee, students chanted “a–hole” and recorded the man’s arrest on their phones.
“It was lit,” one student from Bensalem said. “I saw them tussling before the cops rushed in to arrest the guy.”
The protestor on campus.
Credit: Submitted
Student Ashley Schultz said she saw a portion of the incident and then saw six or seven police vehicles on the campus. She said one person appeared to be in custody.
“A man and woman (who were not students) came to campus, wearing clothing and displaying a poster imprinted with offensive messages. They were creating a disturbance and our campus security called Newtown police who removed the couple,” community college President Dr. Stephanie Shanblatt said in a statement.
The protestor’s sign included a website that claims to feature “faith building Christian interviews to help strengthen and bless you.” Videos on the website feature street preachers, statements on the end of the world, interviews and one video titled “Rebuking Harry Potter.”
The community college’s campus is often a space where people of different views come to talk with students but they are almost always peaceful and polite to students.
“Let me state in the strongest terms that Bucks County Community College is an academic institution that values individual expression. We embrace the diversity of our student body, faculty and staff, our county and our country. We recognize the fact that people have differing views, and welcome opinions expressed in an atmosphere of mutual respect,” Shanblatt said in a statement, adding she thanked security and police.
Schultz said she thought police and the campus security handled the incident properly and commended them.
