Blocking an Avride delivery robot on a sidewalk led to Carolyn Marvin’s arrest last week in Philadelphia’s Center City. Marvin, 78, is a retired University of Pennsylvania communications professor.
6ABC reported that Marvin planted her feet in the approaching robot’s path. With a small crowd watching, police told her to step aside. She refused on protected-speech grounds, and officers handcuffed and arrested her. She faces one count of disorderly conduct and reportedly intends to challenge the charge in court.
Marvin told local reporters that she was protesting the robots because of the threat she believed they posed to local delivery workers. Describing her approach to 6ABC, she said: “I know they’re taking the jobs of human delivery workers,” adding, “and so I have been protesting them whenever I saw them by standing in front of them and preventing them from going forward.”
Speaking separately to KYW Newsradio, she criticized what she described as rich corporations’ ruthless treatment of workers. Her objection, she said, was that rich corporations cast aside human workers, including humble delivery workers, to enrich their bottom lines.
Marvin had already staged passive protests against Philadelphia’s growing delivery robot fleet. When 6ABC asked whether she would continue, her answer was, “I do. Why not?” She explained her legal position: “I think it’s my First Amendment right to publicly demonstrate on a sidewalk to protest against delivery robots.”
The arrest also raises a question about responsibility for sidewalk access. If privately owned delivery robots need clear routes through public infrastructure, who is responsible for ensuring they can get through?
