No Quakertown police officers, including Chief Scott McElree, will face disciplinary action “at this time” for their response to a student-led ICE protest, the borough council announced Friday in its first public statement on the Feb. 20 incident.
In a four-page statement released May 8, Council President Don Rosenberger defended McElree, 72, and the other officers in the clash between police and Quakertown students after about 40 students took their demonstration against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tactics off campus. A planned rally at the high school was canceled earlier in the day as a result of a threat of violence.
The borough released the statement ahead of the completion of the Bucks County District Attorney report into the police response because the investigation is taking longer than anticipated, Rosenberger wrote.
Previously council said it would not comment on the incident until after the DA’s report was released.
The council president described the statement as a “balanced explanation,” and “full and complete account” of events leading up to and including the melee outside Sunday’s Deli & Restaurant on Front Street.
The statement included new screenshots of the protest, which the council believes support its conclusions. It was prepared by borough staff and “consultants” using existing information and documentation related to the protest, Quakertown Solicitor Peter Nelson said.
“We simply want to set forth the facts, as they have been shown and told to us,” Rosenberger said. “We know that there are reasonable opinions that arise from an event of this magnitude, but we offer this summary with the anticipation that this communication will help forward the healing process our community needs now.”
The statement released Friday largely reiterates a timeline of events and details previously reported about what happened during the roughly one-hour protest.
The council president praised McElree and the department for showing restraint and professionalism in dealing with the protesters, calling it a testament to the training “drilled into them by Chief McElree.”
Most of the statement’s conclusions mirror the finding of the Bucks County Police Chiefs’ Association report released last month. The report found police and McElree acted properly and with restraint.
The borough is currently determining the best way to implement the recommendation in the police chiefs’ report, which included adopting a public relations plan for high-interest incidents.
The attorneys representing the five student arrested at the protest have called the police chief-led review misleading and one-sided.
Attorney Ettore Angelo, who represents a 15-year-old defendant, described the council’s conclusions as “power circling the wagons to protect power.”
Quakertown Council statement on ICE protest largely mirrors police-supported accounts
The statement described the protest as starting peacefully then becoming “unruly, disruptive and unlawful,” and accused students of blocking streets and intersections, forcing officers to stop traffic to maintain public safety.
The statement also singled out “certain protesters” as continuing to defy police officers with “illegal and dangerous actions, and continued to urge their fellow protesters to do the same.” Council also acknowledged that most student protesters followed police orders.
Council members also backed McElree’s denial that he appeared to place his arms around the neck area of a 15-year-old girl in what has been described as an alleged chokehold.
“As for Chief McElree’ s positioning of his arm around a protester’s upper torso/neck, that was due to the disparity in height between the Chief and this protester and the Chief being physically attacked and knocked to the ground,” Rosenberger wrote. “This was not a chokehold.”
Rosenberger added that McElree has never applied a chokehold in his career and he is not trained on how to apply a chokehold, which is a law enforcement technique that Quakertown does not allow.
Council members also called the protesters’ response to McElree’s attempts to detain one of the protesters, widely considered the catalyst to the demonstration turning violent, “completely unjustified” and out of proportion.
“Regardless of who they thought Chief McElree was, the protesters’ response to his presence in the crowd went well beyond what could be considered reasonable, necessary, or justified, especially when viewed from the perspective of one elderly man versus 40 teenagers,” the statement said.
McElree was dressed in plain clothes, he did not display a police badge and he was driving an unmarked SUV during the protest. Multiple witnesses allege he did not identify himself as police when he entered the crowd of protesters.
In internal police reports, McElree maintained he identified himself multiple times as police and council members believe he did, the statement said.
Students also could have asked the multiple police officers at the scene about McElree’s presence before taking the law into their own hands, the statement said.
“The protesters’ actions and unchecked aggression cannot be excused or forgiven because they are children or thought this unarmed man posed some sort of threat to them or did not know he was a police officer. What these protesters did was wrong and illegal, and they are old enough to know that.”
Five students were arrested and charged as juveniles with felonies including aggravated assault against McElree, but the felonies were withdrawn against three of the students.
Two more student defendants entered into court orders Friday that will dismiss their charges and expunge their criminal records if they successfully complete a probation period. A third defendant entered the same type of agreement in March.
Angelo’s client is scheduled for a juvenile court appearance on May 12, and the status of the fifth defendant was not immediately known on May 8.
McElree, who was injured in a physical confrontation with students, was on worker’s compensation leave for three months and as of May 6 he returned to work as police chief and borough manager at reduced hours.
Nelson did not respond to emails sent May 7 and 8 asking how many hours a week McElree will be working and what date he returned to work.
