On Wednesday afternoon, Carolyn Marvin was leaving her flu shot appointment when she spotted an Uber Eats robot rolling down the Center City sidewalk. So she did what she has done for months whenever she's had the time: stand in front of it.
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Marvin, 78, said she's not sure how many times she's blocked the path of these robots, which hit the streets of Philadelphia in March. The University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus has made a practice of it to protest "corporations that displace human delivery workers in order to enrich their own bottom line." Her past encounters have circulated online. The Wednesday incident was the first time, however, that the police got involved.
Officers approached Marvin after she'd been there "quite a long time," she said. They asked her to step aside and let the robot complete its delivery. When she repeatedly refused, they arrested her for disorderly conduct.
Police confirmed they had responded to a report of "criminal mischief involving a robot" on the 1200 block of Filbert Street around 1:16 p.m. on Wednesday. A woman on the scene ignored "multiple commands" to move, they said, resulting in a criminal violation notice for disorderly conduct.
Uber declined to comment.
Marvin, who plans to contest the charge on the grounds of her First Amendment right to protest, has been undeterred by the arrest. She plans to continue blocking Uber Eats robots and chatting with curious passersby who ask what she's doing.
"It allows me to talk to people about what's going on," she said. "It's always very interesting conversations that we have, and I think it's good to have those kinds of conversations in public space."
Marvin characterizes public opinion as "divided." Some people are very supportive, she said, while others view her protest as unfair to the customers who paid for delivery. Marvin usually tells them if they're "concerned about money," the robots' impact on delivery workers should worry them, too. She is careful never to block the sidewalk to human pedestrians, she added.
Before Marvin retired, she taught a course on freedom of expression at Penn. She doesn't see her actions as an extension of her academic work, however, as much as civic engagement.
"I would say it's my citizenship," she said. "I'm exercising the rights of my citizenship, so I think of it in those terms."
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