At least five high school students in Quakertown, located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, have now been held in police custody for more than 72 hours following last Friday’s anti-ICE protest. As of this writing, authorities have not publicly clarified how many students remain detained, what specific charges they face, or why juveniles are being held for this length of time.
Their alleged offense: defending themselves after a police chief, not in uniform, physically assaulted students. The police assault has provoked mass outrage in the community and throughout the country. A Change.org petition demanding the resignation of Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree, who was captured on video choking a young female student, has exceeded 7,800 signatures as of this writing.
Your outrage is both understandable and agreed with but I’m pretty sure most people in the US are NOT ok with this and think he should lose his job and go to jail. And I’m pretty sure there is a larger percentage of people in Europe who WOULD be ok with this behavior than you think.
Unfortunately the majority of people who go into law enforcement seem to be quite authoritarian. They seem to enjoy breaking the law while enforcing their own personal version of it, with impunity. I have lived in Europe but never had an interaction with law enforcement, but I would doubt that they are all angels in Europe. I think it’s a matter of degree. Europe has had plenty of experience with fascism. Just because it’s America’s turn doesn’t make Europe immune to it.