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02-05-2024
NEW YORK: Police officers in riot gear arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University in Manhattan on Tuesday night and cleared a building that protesters had seized about 20 hours earlier.
Columbia said it had called the police to campus for the second time in less than two weeks after the building, Hamilton Hall, was “vandalized and blockaded.” The university’s president, Nemat Shafik, asked the NYPD to maintain a presence on campus through at least May 17 to prevent further encampments or occupations.
Among those pushing Columbia University to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrators before the arrests of dozens of protesters on Tuesday was a group of 21 House Democrats who urged its board “to act decisively” or resign, lending bipartisan support to similar calls from Republicans.
“The time for negotiation is over; the time for action is now,” the lawmakers said in a letter, dated Monday, demanding the clearing of an encampment of demonstrators. “If any trustees are unwilling to do this, they should resign so that they can be replaced by individuals who will uphold the university’s legal obligations.”
Police officers arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at City College of New York in Harlem late Tuesday night, as clashes over the war in Gaza continued to escalate on campuses across the country.
Earlier in the evening, protesters tried to take over an administrative building at City College. Police officers chased the crowd, which had been running toward the Howard E. Wille Administration Building just after 7:30 p.m. Most of the demonstrators returned to their nearby encampment.
Officials at the University of California, Los Angeles, have declared a pro-Palestinian encampment illegal for the first time, and warned protesters that they will face consequences if they do not leave.
The situation at City College in Harlem has been escalating for hours after police prevented protesters from taking over a building. Since then, police have arrested dozens and have now moved in to the encampment, where they are making additional arrests.
Columbia University said in a statement that “heightened activity” on the campus had concluded and that the area had been cleared.
There is still a hefty police presence on Columbia’s campus. Lines of officers remain around the perimeter of the encampment.
Police officers in riot gear arrested dozens of protesters that were outside City College’s main campus gates. Those arrested are being loaded onto a law enforcement bus.
Columbia University asked the New York Police Department in a letter on Tuesday to clear a building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters and encampments, and asked that the police remain on campus until at least May 17, after commencement.
President Nemak Shafik requested the NYPD’s assistance in a letter that was released after police entered Hamilton Hall and arrested protesters that had occupied the building on early Tuesday. Columbia’s commencement is currently scheduled for May 15.
Carlos Nieves, the police department’s assistant commissioner of public information, said there were no students left in Columbia’s encampment. “The only thing that is left is the tents and their property,” he said, adding that Hamilton Hall had also been cleared. “There’s no one left in the building,” he said.
Police officers are filing out of Columbia’s campus gates at West 116th Street and loading their equipment into a utility van. The muted chants of protesters farther south on Amsterdam Avenue can be heard in the distance. (Int’l News Desk)
