Leftist anti-Israel students bash State College police for doing their jobs, clearing homeless encampment
One of the groups is a ‘revolutionary anti-capitalist organization made up of Penn State students.’
‘Police enforce the power of the ruling class over workers and oppressed people who can't afford housing,’ the students claimed.
Penn State University students recently condemned State College police officers who they claimed had cleared out a homeless encampment at a local park.
Two groups–the People’s Defense Front - Northern Appalachia, and the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity, a “revolutionary anti-capitalist organization made up of Penn State students”–shared an Instagram post on Aug. 10 claiming that State College police were committing “violence” against “unhoused workers” for clearing the encampment at Sidney Friedman Park.
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In the post, the groups claimed that on Aug. 8, State College police officers told the homeless individuals at the park to get rid of a mattress and “other belongings” after being called by “wealthy residents” who were “offended by the sight of unhoused residents.” The students believe the police officers’ action was part of a “campaign of intimidation and punishment.”
The homeless individuals at the camp were allegedly instructed to leave the site by dusk.
The post specifically targeted Captain Greg Brauser for criticism, who was in charge of the clear-out. The groups condemned him as someone allegedly “known to violate the civil rights of racial justice protesters.”
The groups attacked wealthier residents of State College, claiming that they “deprive people of housing in the name of profit,” and that “state forces” then “harass, threaten, and displace” the poor “for the ‘crime’ of being too poor to afford housing.”
“Police enforce the power of the ruling class over workers and oppressed people who can’t afford housing,” the students continued.
The groups claimed that “violent clear outs” of homeless camps “are on the rise” across the U.S., and tied the supposed trend to Israel’s counteroffensive against the terrorist group, Hamas, writing: “This is happening in a context in which the US government is sending billions of dollars in weapons and munitions to enable Israel’s genocide of Palestine, yet there is no funding to secure basic needs, like housing, for workers and oppressed people here.”
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The students continued their criticism of the Jewish state, claiming: “The ruling class uses the wealth generated by the labor of workers in the U.S. to enable imperialist genocide abroad, while funding police departments domestically to evict workers from public parks who can’t afford housing.”
Campus Reform has contacted the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
