FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Contact: Attorney Alec Summerfield, Peoples Power Assembly asummerfield59@gmail.com
Baltimore Police Block Access to Penn Station, Peoples Power Assembly Files Complaint
On Saturday, November 4th, 2023, a national march in support of Palestine was held in Washington, DC. Estimates of attendance to this march range from 100,000 to 300,000 people. The Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly organized a Baltimore contingent to this march. The PPA instructed participants to meet and briefly gather outside of Penn Station at 10:00 am, with the intention of boarding the 11:00 am train.
As organizers and others began to gather outside the station around 9:30 am, we were approached by Baltimore Police Sergeant Biondo. Sergeant Biondo asked myself and the other individuals present some questions regarding our plans. We informed Sergeant Biondo that we intended to rally briefly outside the train station and enter to board the train around 10:30 am for the 11:00 am train. Sergeant Biondo also asked about the number of people we expected to attend. We answered that it would probably be between 100 and 150 people, similar to other demonstrations PPA held in the area recently on the subject of Palestine. This was not our first time liaising with the BPD on this issue.
Around 10:15 am, the BPD, working in conjunction with Amtrak police, locked all but one set of doors in the front of the station. The BPD placed at least 5 officers outside the front of the door on each flank. On the inside, there were another 3-5 Amtrak police officers huddled around the one unlocked entrance.
At 10:30, as our group peacefully and quietly approached the only remaining unlocked entrance, Sergeant Biondo and his fellow officers would not let us enter the train station. The Sergeant informed us that they would only be allowing 10 people in at a time and only once they were ready to do so. However, the BPD did not even begin that process for almost 10 minutes. They provided no reasoning and refused to communicate with us at all regarding this restriction. At approximately 10:40 am, the BPD finally began letting in groups of ten. Almost all of the individuals they allowed through were clearly traveling for other reasons as demonstrated by their large suitcases, lack of protest signs, and lack of being dressed for weather.
For public officials to restrict the access of the public to a public train station simply based on political opinion is a violation of basic civil liberties and constitutional rights. It was clear to all those at Penn Station on Saturday that this was an attempt to harass pro-Palestine protesters and discourage travel to the DC event.
Sergeant Biondo and any official involved in this illegal police action need to be held accountable.
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