NYPD Arrests Dozens in Clearing of Columbia University Building and Encampment
NYPD Arrests Dozens in Clearing of Columbia University Building and Encampment
NYPD apprehended dozens during a clearance operation at a Columbia University building and nearby encampment.
New York police arrested dozens of people on two college campuses Tuesday night after officers cleared out a Columbia University building occupied by protesters. The police action in New York came as continuing student protests exposed raw emotions across the country’s campuses, with clashes between rival protest groups at UCLA and a campus closure at Portland State University in Oregon.
Columbia University Occupation Led by Outside Agitators, Officials Say
At Columbia, New York police used a massive armored vehicle to push a bridge into a window of Hamilton Hall, the building demonstrators began occupying the previous night. Officers then streamed over the bridge, quickly retaking the building. Columbia officials said the protesters’ occupation of Hamilton Hall was led by outside agitators, with President Minouche Shafik writing in a letter requesting NYPD assistance, “We believe that while the group who broke into the building includes students, it is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University.”
Protesters chained the doors, used furniture as barricades, and used rope to have people outside the building transfer supplies to them, tactics NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said were taught to other participants. Some of the protesters have been on the NYPD’s radar for years, Weiner said at a press conference Tuesday.
Images and video released by Columbia University show overturned and stacked furniture, broken windows, and other damage in the aftermath of the seizure and occupation of Hamilton Hall by protesters and its clearing by police. Those who entered Hamilton Hall will be charged with burglary in the third degree, criminal mischief, and trespassing, while participants who were outside the building will be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct, NYPD said.
Dozens Arrested at The City College of New York
Elsewhere in New York City, police arrested dozens of students at The City College of New York, less than a mile from Columbia. Early Tuesday evening, a large crowd of demonstrators marched from Columbia University to The City College of New York, a school within the City University of New York system. School officials said in a statement that CUNY public safety officers arrested 25 individuals in their initial response but decided to call in New York police “as the crowd grew in size.”
NYPD officers entered campus just before midnight and arrested additional protesters, the statement said. It stressed that the school’s actions were taken “in response to specific and repeated acts of violence and vandalism, not in response to peaceful protest.”
Nearly 100 people were arrested, about 40 of them at Hamilton Hall, after police moved in to clear protesters at Columbia University’s request, officials said. Columbia President Shafik also asked police to keep a presence on the campus through at least May 17 — two days after the scheduled May 15 commencement. An estimated 15,000 students are set to graduate, the university has said.
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