Chris Sommerfeldt and Thomas Tracy | New York Daily News
More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested when an army of NYPD officers stormed Columbia University to stop the seizure of a school building where all the doors had been barricaded with burglars for bicycles, officials said Wednesday.
Police officers, some wielding chainsaws, climbed through windows Tuesday evening to enter Columbia’s Hamilton Hall university building, which was occupied by protesters less than 24 hours earlier as part of a demonstration that began the month last and sparked similar pro-Palestinian actions on college campuses. across the United States
During an appearance early Wednesday morning on MSNBC with Mayor Adams, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard said that once inside Hamilton Hall, cops discovered that protesters had barricaded the doors with chain-link bicycle locks.
“This is what we encountered on every door in Hamilton Hall,” Sheppard said, holding up one of the heavy locks. “That’s not what students bring to school, okay?”
In response to Sheppard’s remarks, Columbia students noted on social media that the university’s public safety department was selling the same type of lock Sheppard retained as part of an anti-bicycle theft program on the campus.
At a press conference at NYPD headquarters later Wednesday, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban raised the issue of bicycle locks again.
“They tried to lock us out, but the NYPD and the people of New York City will never be locked out,” Caban said before loudly slamming the padlock against the stage.
At the same news conference, NYPD Patrol Chief John Chell said a total of 109 protesters were arrested in Columbia, including about 50 inside the occupied Hamilton Hall. Another 173 people were arrested in another raid on a pro-Palestinian encampment on the City College campus in Harlem, where video posted on showed police tackling protesters to the ground before handcuffing them.
Sheppard said no injuries were reported during the clashes, while adding that the New York Police Department was still “triaging” those arrested.
Sheppard called the police raid on Hamilton Hall a “calm and precise operation.” Charges protesters could face include burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief, according to police officials.
The mayor and members of his administration have said this week’s escalation of pro-Palestinian protests was led by unidentified “outside agitators,” a claim denied by leaders of the student protests.
On Wednesday, Adams said there was evidence that protesters who took over Hamilton broke security cameras and “were trained on how to barricade a place and what type of locks to use.”
Although he did not identify her, Adams also said that the New York police discovered that among those who participated in the Columbia encampment was a woman whose husband was a convicted terrorist.
Deputy Intelligence Commissioner Rebecca Weiner told New York Police headquarters that the woman was not present during Tuesday night’s raid and that there was “no evidence of criminal acts by her go “.
“But she’s not someone that I would necessarily want to influence my child if I was someone’s parent at Columbia,” Weiner said, adding that the woman was seen on campus last week.
The mayor and NYPD officials repeatedly declined during the briefing to say how many of those arrested were “outside agitators,” citing an ongoing investigation.
On MSNBC, Adams suggested that outside agitators might have overseas connections.
“There are harmful people trying to radicalize our children, and we cannot ignore it. These outside influences, I don’t know if they’re international, I think we need to look at that as well,” he said. “But there is an attempt to radicalize young people in this country.”
The mayor declined to explain why he suspects there might be an international connection to the campus protests when asked by the Daily News later in the day at an unrelated event at City Hall .
Adams, a retired NYPD captain who was a prominent anti-racism advocate while a police officer, said during the NYPD headquarters briefing that he knew that leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1990s 1960 had been described as “external agitators” by the segregationists.
“We understand that, but this police department cannot listen to politically correct terminology, we have to listen to public safety,” he said.
In addition to the bike locks, videos shared by the New York Police Department show officers removing chairs and other furniture used as barricades during the Hamilton Hall raid.
Students took over the building shortly after midnight Monday, amid a week-long campus protest against the Israeli military incursion into Gaza, which has left more than 34,000 Palestinians dead and was launched in response to the fighters of Hamas who killed 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more hostage during the month of October. Terrorist attack of July 7, 2023.
Columbia leaders confirmed Tuesday evening that they had requested the deployment of the NYPD — which involved hundreds of officers — in response to the occupation of Hamilton Hall.
This marked a reversal from a few weeks ago, when Columbia President Minouche Shafik said the university would not invite NYPD officers back after arresting about 100 protesters in as part of a daylight raid on April 18. enter into negotiations with student protest leaders, who have demanded that the university divest itself of all its Israeli financial assets in response to the war in Gaza.
The NYPD’s City College raid, which also took place at the invitation of school leaders, included officers clearing an encampment set up on campus and arresting dozens of people. No school buildings were occupied as part of this demonstration.
The mass arrests just before midnight at City College followed the announcement that the Harlem college would move to online classes “until further notice” as the campus continued to be rocked by the pro-Gaza encampment .
After razing the City College encampment, NYPD officials, including Sheppard and Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, were seen on video removing a Palestinian flag from the campus flagpole and throwing it away before throwing it away. replace with an American flag.
At New York Police headquarters on Wednesday, Adams said it was “despicable” that protesters raised a Palestinian flag and praised Daughtry for removing it.
“Blame me for being proud to be an American,” the Democratic mayor said. “We are not giving up our way of life to anyone. »
Left-wing supporters of pro-Palestinian protesters said the NYPD crackdown on campuses was counterproductive and noted it came on the city’s officers’ birthday . break violently a demonstration on the Columbia campus against the Vietnam War in 1968.
“On the same day that Columbia University provoked violence against students protesting the Vietnam War, the mayor and administration chose to repeat history,” said Ana María Archila, co-director of the Progressive Party New York’s working families.
“The violent crackdown on Columbia and CCNY students protesting the massacres in Gaza is reckless, increasingly violent, and puts the entire university community at risk… This is a shameful day in history of our city and a day that will not be forgotten.
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