The NYPD mobilized busloads of officers, ready to evacuate anti-Israel protesters from Columbia, but the university did not request police officers, according to sources.
Hundreds of students and faculty defied a 2 p.m. deadline Monday to leave an on-campus tent camp — marching, singing, chanting and playing drums at the Ivy League university.
Patrol officers were mobilized to Randall’s Island, just a few miles from the Morningside Heights campus in Columbia, police sources told the Post.
The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group is not part of the mobilization, sources said.
Cops can’t enter campus unless Columbia administration requests help.
On April 18, as the protest was just beginning, Colombian President Manouche Shafik called the police to disperse the encampment.
More than 100 protesters were handcuffed and taken away by police, but the tent encampment was quickly reestablished after the officers left and has remained since.
However, so far no such order has been given, and hundreds of protesters remain on the Ivy League campus even after today’s deadline.
In an open letter Monday morning, Shafik said the university would use “internal options to end this crisis as quickly as possible.”
Shafik faced intense criticism from faculty and other members of the Columbia community for his use of NYPD officers to dismantle the tent camp earlier this month.
New York Post
