Officials claim protests at Columbia University were escalated by outsiders, but did not identify which of the 300 people arrested weren’t students.
On Tuesday night, the NYPD arrested nearly 300 pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the campuses of Columbia University and City College of New York. Ahead of the police sweep, Mayor Eric Adams warned students to leave, claiming that protests had been hijacked by “outside agitators.” On Wednesday morning, Adams and law-enforcement officials extended this line of argument, defending the department’s tactics as a necessary response to chaos perpetuated by external actors.
“There is a movement to radicalize young people and I’m not going to wait until it’s done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it,” Adams said at a press conference. “This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York.”
In news appearances, NYPD officials cited the use of heavy bike chains to secure the doors of Hamilton Hall as evidence of the professional nature of the protests. “This is not what students bring to school. This is what professionals bring to campuses and universities,” Deputy Commissioner of Communication Tarik Sheppard said during an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday. But social-media users unearthed old posts from Columbia University’s Public Safety department that recommended the Kryptonite bike locks in question to students who biked and even offered a discount for purchasing them.
