Last Friday, 13 police officers gathered in the early morning hours outside an off-campus residential building in West Philadelphia. It was the home of several University of Pennsylvania students.

Donning their full tactical gear, including riot helmets, and armed with assault rifles and handguns, the police threatened to break down the door with a battering ram and pointed a gun at a neighbor before storming the residence.

The sound of police coming up the stairs woke the students up. As they stepped out of their rooms, police trained guns on them, according to one student present during the raid who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity for fear of their personal safety.

Police identified themselves as 12 officers from the University of Pennsylvania Police Department and one from the Philadelphia Police Department, the student said, but refused to provide names, badge numbers, or a warrant. Police seized another student’s personal device and took the student in for questioning. They were released later that morning with no charges or arrests made.

In the course of questioning, the student was provided with a copy of the warrant for suspicion of vandalism, according to the first student who spoke to The Intercept. The warrant related to an incident in September where red paint was thrown on the Benjamin Franklin statue on campus.

At the time, Penn’s public safety department received a report of an incident and responded. Student activists posted on Instagram that “an autonomous group” was responsible.

“I’m pretty concerned that the university is using extreme tactics to try and suppress student movements. It’s been pretty consistent this entire year,” said state Rep. Rick Krajewski, a Democrat who represents West Philadelphia. “A legal warrant is one thing, but the amount of force used for that warrant against young students is extremely alarming.”

He said, “At the end of the day 12 cops showed up with........

© The Intercept