New York Police officers loaded arrested Columbia University protesters onto a bus in New York City on Tuesday.
Jules Motal/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Jules Motal/AP
New York Police officers loaded arrested Columbia University protesters onto a bus in New York City on Tuesday.
Jules Motal/AP
New York City officials say nearly half of the 282 people arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on two campuses last week are not affiliated with either school.
Details of the arrests were released Thursday by the New York City Police Department and Mayor Eric Adams following growing pressure for Adams to reveal how many people arrested at Columbia University and City College of New York were students after his repeated claims that “outside agitators” guided the protests that led to the arrests.
City officials said 29 percent of the 112 people arrested Tuesday during a protest in Columbia were not affiliated with the school. At the City College protest, 60 percent of the 170 people arrested were not affiliated with the school, according to the city’s press release.
Police were sent to Columbia University at the request of school administrators, who had said the protesters’ occupation of Hamilton Hall was led by individuals unaffiliated with Columbia.
As students on campuses across the country protest Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, many demanding their universities divest from Israel, school officials have called for police intervention. More than 2,100 people have been arrested in recent weeks during pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. But officials in some cities have refused calls from school administrators to disband police during campus protests.
Adams told NPR on Thursday that he sent police to Colombia after learning that “one of the husbands of the outside agitators had been arrested on federal terrorism charges.”
He called it a “tipping point,” adding: “I knew I couldn’t stand by and say I’m going to allow the situation to continue to get worse.” »
Nahla Al-Arian, the person he was referring to, told The Associated Press that the mayor misrepresented her husband’s story and his role in the protest.
After large numbers of protesters marched from Columbia to nearby City College on Tuesday evening, university public safety officers made 25 arrests before calling the New York Police Department, who proceeded to other arrests. Police said school officials made the call in response to “violence and vandalism, not in response to a peaceful protest.”
Students and spectators criticized the heavy use of police force on Manhattan campuses – and at other schools.
City officials have not released any further identifying information about those arrested during Tuesday’s protests on campus.
“We’ve turned everything over to the school, and it’s up to the school to determine whether they’re going to release the names of students and non-students,” Mayor Adams said on the NY1 morning show Thursday.
The city also said protesters’ refusal to speak to police hampered the process of identifying arrests. The mayor’s office has not yet responded to NPR’s questions about how law enforcement determined the college affiliation of those arrested.
“Most of those arrested were uncooperative with the NYPD and unwilling to provide information, slowing the process of identifying their affiliation with Columbia or CCNY,” it says. read in the city’s press release.
NPR News
