Officers from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) entered and made arrests at Columbia University on Tuesday evening after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied an academic building, which police cleared. This is the latest escalation in an ongoing demonstration that gained worldwide attention and sparked similar actions on campuses across the US after NYPD officers forcibly dispersed a protest encampment on the university’s South Lawn almost two weeks ago.
Police in riot gear could be seen entering the occupied building, Hamilton Hall, on top of an armored truck. Protesters have occupied the building since early Tuesday.
The university made a statement confirming that they had invited the NYPD onto campus to disperse the protesters. The statement said, in part:
We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice. Columbia public safety personnel were forced out of the building, and a member of our facilities team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation.
Columbia also believes “that the group that broke into and occupied the building is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university.”
An earlier statement released at 8 pm local time Tuesday evening from the Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) claimed that Columbia’s administration has refused to let faculty back onto campus after locking down much of the campus earlier in the day, which the Columbia AAUP says has curtailed faculty efforts to defuse the situation. The statement continued:
NYPD presence in our neighborhood endangers our entire community. Armed police entering our campus places students and everyone else on campus at risk. That is why Univeristy statutes require consiltation with the faculty – statutes which appear to have been ignored since April 17, and again tonight. We hold the University leadership responsible for the disastrous lapses of judgment that have gotten us to this point. The University President, her senior staff, and the Board of Trustees will bear responsibility for any injuries that may occur during any police action on our campus.
The Columbia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) reposted a video showing a protester tumbling down a set of stairs in front of Hamilton Hall as riot police pushed people away from the building. SJP reported that the protester, a Columbia student, was pushed down the stairs and was denied medical care after becoming unconscious.
During a press conference Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams alleged that the Columbia demonstrations have “basically been co-opted by professionals[,] outside agitators.” During the presser, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner played a two-minute video that showed protesters entering Hamilton Hall through windows. Weiner also claimed that the video showed individuals unaffiliated with the school allowing protesters to enter the building. The deputy commissioner also showed a photo featuring a protester breaking a window as well other pictures featuring demonstrators barricading areas of the building. Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry announced that occupiers would be charged with “burglary in the third degree, criminal mischief, and trespassing” while encampment participants would “be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.”
The initial encampment at Columbia was organized on April 17. NYPD officers dispersed the encampment on April 18, making over 100 arrests in the process, after being invited onto campus by the university administration. The encampment and the NYPD’s response spawned a wave of similar demonstrations across the US, with 47 protesters arrested at Yale University and 120 demonstrators at New York University (NYU), among other schools.
Earlier Tuesday, police at the University of South Florida deployed what appeared to be tear gas to disperse a pro-Palestine encampment on that campus after the demonstration was deemed an “unlawful assembly.”
Students are protesting Israel’s military activity in Gaza. The UN Secretary-General reported that more than 30,000 people have been killed and 70,000 have been injured in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas War. The war began after Hamas’ October 7 attacks, where fighters killed around 1,163 people and took 20 hostages. Accusations of genocide have been made against both belligerents. The UN Security Council passed a resolution in March calling for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict due to the humanitarian toll, with the US abstaining.
