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Penn issued a UPennAlert for a "large disruptive crowd." Approximately 150 to 200 protesters had gathered at Larry Jameson's house after marching from Woodland Ave.
Multiple Penn professors recounted their experience with this morning's police sweep of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the gathering, with several speakers and audience members breaking into tears.
Demonstrators remained at the intersection for around three hours and chanted at police officers, who maintained a large presence even after the police vans had left.
At 1 p.m., the American Association of University Professors held a press conference condemning the arrests of members of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and the suppression of "nonviolent anti-war protest."
While several of Pennsylvania’s most high-profile politicians praised Penn’s move to disband the encampment, two politicians who represent Penn expressed deep concern about the University's conduct.
Falleti wrote that she is “no longer confident of my ability to work collaboratively with our administration that has sent in the police to arrest its own students, staff, and faculty.”
Approximately 33 individuals were arrested at the encampment early Friday morning, a University spokesperson wrote to The Daily Pennsylvanian. As of 9:05 a.m., all individuals had been released.
Around five Penn employees could be seen carrying out tents, signs, flags, backpacks, and other belongings from the encampment and loading them into a trash truck parked on Locust Walk.
“The University of Pennsylvania has an obligation to their safety,” he said. “It is past time for the university to act, to address this, to disband the encampment, and to restore order and safety on campus.”
A letter addressed to one of the disciplined individuals writes that their participation has contributed to “increasingly unsafe conditions” and “a situation that poses a threat to order and safety.”
The main entrance to Van Pelt Library is closed to everyone — including Penn students — as of 8:04 p.m. Penn Hillel is also currently on lockdown, according to a source familiar with the matter.
At around 7:30 p.m., members began moving barriers and at least eight tents onto the east side of College Green as a crowd of 200 people chanted “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
A second encampment has appeared with multiple tents to the left of the current encampment on Penn's College Green — the first expansion of the demonstration since it began two weeks ago.
The letter, which was acquired by The Daily Pennsylvanian, calls on Jameson to “act immediately,” even if it means inviting the Philadelphia Police Department to campus.