By Elisabeth Palacios

Sunday, October 20th, at 5 PM, presidential candidate Donald Trump had a rally right here in the heart of Lancaster.  The town hall was full of hundreds of supporters by the time the doors opened at 2:30, and the line of people that were waiting wrapped around a whole block.  

Trump reiterated the main points of his campaign like in many of his other rallies. He promised that he would reduce energy costs and gas bills if he got re-elected, though without explanation. His answers to multiple questions came back to the issue of our border security and immigration. The public opinion of the people who attended the rally was very positive overall, with supportive comments on Trump’s transparency and policy. 

Anticipating Trump’s arrival, there was also a small protest of about 100 people at Penn Square – including some students from McCaskey. The group stood on the square while holding up signs that were not specifically targeted against Trump, but were in explicit support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Due to the presence of this protest, the event wasn’t entirely peaceful because there were reported physical altercations between a Trump and Harris supporter. This led to a Lancaster city police officer pushing a photojournalist amidst the protest. 

Susan Stava tried taking a picture of the fight in action since she traveled from New York to Lancaster to see and record the rally—considering that Pennsylvania is an extremely important state for this election. However, the Lancaster police officer who was attempting to diffuse the conflict pushed Stava away from the scene along with others who were adding fuel to the fire. The push was strong enough to cause her to fall down and hit her head on the pavement below. The injury was strong enough for Stava to seek medical attention soon after.
There are multiple videos roaming the internet of the incident, and despite speculation, the Lancaster City Bureau of Police stated that their review of the event “shows the officer followed the law including the Bureau’s training, policies, and procedures.”