Protests Continue in Center City, at Philly Colleges

Hundreds of students walked out of class on Wednesday afternoon. Later, in Center City, officers arrested a man accused of flying a drone too close to a police helicopter.
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It’s been little more than one week since Donald Trump was elected.

Since then, demonstrations have been held every night in Philadelphia – and after last night, it’s clear that protestors aren’t losing any steam. 

A march in Center City gained traction around 5 p.m. yesterday, as roughly 100 people gathered outside the Philadelphia Police Department Headquarters at 8th and Race streets, where they protested the Fraternal Order of Police’s endorsement of Trump. The group eventually traveled to Market Street and west to Broad Street, where they headed south toward Rittenhouse Square.

Tensions were reportedly high during the march, organized by the Philadelphia Coalition for R.E.A.L. Justice. Officers escorted away at least two women, one of whom had allegedly attempted to push through a wall of police officers on bikes, according to the Inquirer.

One man was arrested for allegedly flying a drone near a police helicopter that was monitoring the protest around 6 p.m. He was charged with reckless endangerment, according to NBC10.

The rally ended at 18th and Walnut streets around 7:30 p.m.

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Meanwhile at the University of Pennsylvania, president Amy Gutmann marched in solidarity with students, deans, faculty and staff on Locust Walk.

The solidarity walk comes less than one week after many black freshmen at the university were added to a racist mass-messaging group that called for a “daily lynching” and included repeated use of the N-word. Those messages were sent just two days after Trump’s election.

“At a time when people are so divided, this is hope that we are united as a university,” Gutmann told the Inquirer. “This is what higher education has to do.”

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Protests were held at a number of other local universities, including Temple University, Rutgers and Haverford College, where students eventually made their way to the Lower Merion Police Department.

Also yesterday, hundreds of local college students at universities like Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr Colleges, Rutgers, Temple and Penn walked out of classes in an effort to protest anti-immigration reform long proposed by Trump, according to NewsWorks.

Follow @ClaireSasko on Twitter.

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