Pussy Riot Takes Trip to Cambridge Police Department After Harvard Appearance

Image via associated press

After speaking at a special engagement at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics on Monday night, members of the punk feminist collective Pussy Riot made their way to the Cambridge Police Department to urge officers to release a protester from jail—and they told their followers to come along.

Band members Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova stood ground inside of the department until midnight, after Roman Torgovitsky, a 2008 Harvard School of Public Health graduate, was arrested by Harvard University Police for trespassing at the band’s event.

Pussy Riot was at Harvard’s IOP for a forum moderated by CNN foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty, where they discussed the problems Russia faces under the rule of President Vladimir Putin, as well as the time they spent behind bars due to their protest inside of a church in 2012. That protest, and subsequent court trial and imprisonment, led to their international fame.

Torgovitsky was apprehended by campus police Monday after asking a question during Pussy Riot’s appearance. Last May, Torgovitsky was banned from “stepping foot” on Harvard’s campus after he stormed the stage during a concert featuring violinist Vladimir T. Spivakov at the school’s Sanders Theater. Torgovitsky delivered a brief speech that blasted Spivakov for the musician’s support for Putin, according to a Crimson article.

Following the event, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina promptly formed a posse on Torgovitsky’s behalf, and congregated inside of police headquarters.

“A peaceful participant arrested at our lecture, we’re going right now to Cambridge police station to investigate,” Pussy Riot tweeted, after sharing the police station’s address in Cambridge with 17,000 followers, some of whom showed up to support the band’s efforts.

Now our crew and a big team of Harvard students is at the Cambridge PD HQ till Roman Torgovitsky gets released! pic.twitter.com/5KbBrrt2w8

— 𝖕𝖚𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙💦 (@pussyrrriot) September 16, 2014

Finally, after a few hours of them standing around and demanding his release, police let Torgovitsky go:

We've just managed to free Roman Torgovitskiy – police released him, woohoo! pic.twitter.com/diclgsSFny

— 𝖕𝖚𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙💦 (@pussyrrriot) September 16, 2014