Columbia University cleared of protesters and dozens arrested, police confirm
Reged Ahmad
Less than three hours after police entered Columbia, the campus had been cleared of protesters. A police spokesperson said “dozens” of arrests had been made.
Local media is reporting police as saying both Hamilton Hall and the protest encampment is now entirely cleared of students.
“The only thing that is left is the tents and their property,” the police said.
NYPD spokesman Carlos Nieves said he had no immediate reports of any injuries following the arrests.
Key events
Police begin arrests at City College of New York
The New York Times is reporting that police have arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at City College of New York (CUNY). An NYPD official confirmed that CUNY had requested that police enter the capus to disperse protesters.
Tensions at the campus have been rising throughout the evening – and it was understood that some students left the Columbia campus when arrets began there and moved north to join the sit-in at CUNY.
An encampment at the public college, part of the City University of New York system, has been going since Thursday and students had attempted to occupy an academic building earlier on Tuesday.
Images coming in show a large police presence outside the CUNY campus.
Earlier we reported that a number of students had left Columbia as the arrests began and moved north to the City College Of New York (CUNY) campus where a protest sit in was still in effect.
A NYPD official told the Guardian that the situation at CUNY was “a work in progress.
Images from the campus show a significant police presence, facing off against protesters.
Soon after police moved into Columbia, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that if any student was hurt in the operation, responsibility would fall on the mayor and university presidents.
She urged New York mayor Eric Adams to “reverse course”.
Other leaders and schools have found a safe, de-escalatory path. This is the opposite of leadership and endangers public safety. A nightmare in the making.
If any kid is hurt tonight, responsibility will fall on the mayor and univ presidents.
Other leaders and schools have found a safe, de-escalatory path. This is the opposite of leadership and endangers public safety. A nightmare in the making.
I urge the Mayor to reverse course. https://t.co/52eAEfbJjq
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 1, 2024
A reminder that this is the second time in a matter of days that police have been brought in to breakup protests at Columbia University.
On 18 April, Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik confirmed that she had authorised police to begin clearing an encampment on the campus.
More than 100 students were arrested and their tents were torn down. Some students were suspended as well.
As a result, hundreds of faculty members held a mass walkout on 22 April to protest against the school’s decision to have police arrest students. The protest encampment returned at the same time.
Protesters at City College of New York in standoff with police
The Associated Press is reporting that just blocks away from Columbia, at the City College of New York (CUNY), demonstrators are in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate.
Video posted on social media by news reporters on the scene shows officers hauling some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared people from the street and sidewalks.
An encampment at the public college, part of the City University of New York system, has been going since Thursday.
Columbia University cleared of protesters and dozens arrested, police confirm
Reged Ahmad
Less than three hours after police entered Columbia, the campus had been cleared of protesters. A police spokesperson said “dozens” of arrests had been made.
Local media is reporting police as saying both Hamilton Hall and the protest encampment is now entirely cleared of students.
“The only thing that is left is the tents and their property,” the police said.
NYPD spokesman Carlos Nieves said he had no immediate reports of any injuries following the arrests.
Reged Ahmad
We’re getting some reaction from other students at Columbia university.
Fabien Lugo is a first-year accounting student who says he wasn’t involved in the protests. But he’s told Associated Press (AP) that he opposes the university’s decision to call in police.
“They’ve shut down everything. This is too intense,” he said. “It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation.”
Ilana Lewkovitch, a self-described “leftist Zionist” student at Columbia, says it’s been hard to concentrate on school for weeks.
She says her exams have been punctuated with chants of “say it loud, say it clear, we want Zionists out of here” in the background, she told AP.
Hamilton Hall now entirely cleared of protesters, media report
Local media are reporting that police have confirmed that all protesters have now been moved out of Hamilton Hall, the academic building that demonstrators occupied over 24 hours ago.
NBC news is reporting that as many as 100 people have been detained.
Live TV footage shows that a huge police presence remains around the campus. Earlier we reported that Columbia has requested that some police remain at the university until at least mid-May.
Ed Pilkington
As police shut down anti-Israel protests at Columbia, making dozens of arrests, students were reportedly moving north to the CUNY campus where a protest sit in was still in effect.
The comprehensive police operation at Columbia has involved hundreds of officers who have held a perimeter of closed streets surrounding the university.
The takeover of Hamilton Hall – named after one of America’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton – followed the failure of talks with university authorities aimed at winning the protesters’ agreement to dismantle an encampment of about 120 tents.
What were the students demanding?
Nothing less than Columbia’s divestment from companies they say profit from Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, has rejected divestment calls. But the university offered an accelerated timeline to review student divestment proposals by the institution’s Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing, the body that considers such questions. In a febrile atmosphere, protesters dismissed it as insufficient.
What other factors are in play?
Some Jewish students have said they have felt threatened and allege they have been subjected to antisemitic slurs. Similar complaints have been levelled at other protest-hit campuses.
Protesters – some of whom are Jewish – counter that instances of antisemitism are being exaggerated and conflated with condemnation of Israel, and leveraged in an effort to snuff out legitimate criticism of the state.
How much does this resonate beyond the university campus?
The spectre of enduring protests, creating the impression of chaos and disorder on America’s university campuses, could undermine Joe Biden’s re-election chances.
Fox News has already sensed the potential for a campaign issue, running round-the-clock footage of the scenes from Columbia in a switch of focus from the US-Mexico border, previously seen as the Republicans’ biggest potential vote-winner.
Worse still for Biden, the Democratic party’s student organisation, College Democrats of America, has endorsed the protests, saying in a statement: “As representatives of youth across the country, we reserve the right to criticise our own party when it fails to represent youth voices.”
By contrast, the protests were denounced on Tuesday’s by Biden’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, who called them “absolutely the wrong approach”.
More images of police loading detained students into buses outside of Columbia have come in. It’s being reported that at least 50 people were arrested after police entered the university to clear out Hamilton Hall – an academic building that was being occupied by pro-Palestine protesters.
A huge number of police have now left the area around the campus, but a significant presence remains.
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