Four Cops Injured In Allentown High School Brawl [Video]

Four cops wound up in the hospital following a student brawl outside an Allentown, Pennsylvania, high school yesterday afternoon.

Two of the officers who responded to reports of large groups of student engaged in street fighting at about 3 p.m. may have suffered concussions in the after-school encounter at William Allen High School, which gives an entirely different meaning to extra-curricular activities.

All four officers have since been released after treatment at a local hospital, fortunately, according to the New York Daily News, although apparently only two of them have been able to go back on duty right away.

A 30-second cell phone video that captured just a small a portion of the melee (NSFW for language) and that quickly went viral on social media is embedded below. A second video has also emerged of the violence outside the high school.

“When police responded to the fight, which had spilled out to the streets, the students began targeting the officers, the video shows,” the Doylestown-Buckingham Patch suggested.

At one point in the fighting, a female teen attacked and knocked a female officer to the ground, footage of which seems to be depicted in the video. According to the Morning Call, two female students started the whole thing, which quickly escalated with as many as 200 students either directly involved in splitting off into smaller groups of combatants or just milling around the hostilities.

Cops have made five arrests so far on charges including aggravated assault and riot and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

A beefed-up law enforcement presence was on the scene today at afternoon dismissal to make sure things went smoothly.

“A female juvenile grabbed an officer by the hair and pulled her to the ground as officers attempted to break up the fight, according to a news release. Authorities said the girl punched the officer in the face and continued to assault her after the officer hit the ground,” WFMZ-TV News in Allentown reported on the Thursday brawl.

Located in the Lehigh Valley, Allentown is the third largest city in the state, and perhaps was made famous by the Billy Joel ballad of the same name that chroncled the erosion of the manufacturing industry there.

The school district issued the following statement today about the incident.

“The Allentown School District is working in partnership with the Allentown Police Department to ensure a thorough investigation of the incident that transpired at 12th and Chew Streets in the city on Thursday, October 29. The District does not tolerate behavior of this kind. APD Officers work diligently to ensure the safety of our students and this community, and an attack on an officer will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. Our support goes out to the injured police officers and their families.”

Allentown mayor Ed Palowski vowed that those responsible for the violence will be held accountable in court and via the school disciplinary process. He also praised first responders for the way they handled the situation outside the school. “In a time when actions by police officers are subject to great scrutiny across the country, I believe our officers showed remarkable restraint when their own personal safety was at risk. Violence against police officers cannot be tolerated,” he noted.

The local police chief insisted that the investigation will continue until cops identify everyone involved.

“As officers tried to pull the fighters apart, some of the boys and girls turned on the officers,” the assistant police chief explained about the Allentown High School brawl.

[Photo courtesy of Alphageekpa via Wikimedia Commons|cropped and resized| (CC BY-SA 3.0)]