NY. Some 300 people were arrested in the police intervention against protesters at New York universities such as Columbia, the heart of the pro-Palestinian protests that have spread throughout the United States, announced the mayor of New York, who accused people outside the center of wanting to sow “chaos” .
“Approximately 300 people were arrested at Columbia University and City College,” Mayor Eric Adams said this Wednesday, at a press conference surrounded by officials from the city’s Police Department (NYPD).
Of them, 109 at Columbia and 173 at City College.
“We are processing the arrests to distinguish between (the center’s) students and those who should not have been on campus,” said Adams, who accused the latter of “turning peaceful protests into evil anti-Semitic and anti-Israel attitudes.”
“We knew and saw that there were people who (…) the only thing that mattered was sowing chaos,” he said, before emphasizing that “there is no place for hate in the city.”
The rector of the prestigious university, Minouche Shafik, requested on Tuesday, for the second time in less than two weeks, police intervention to evict a group of students who had occupied a campus building, Hamilton Hall, in the early hours of Tuesday. , and dismantle the tents erected in the gardens by pro-Palestinian students.
Dozens of riot police entered from a crane truck through a window on the second floor of this building to arrest the thirty barricaded protesters who were demanding that the center cut all ties with Israel and the companies that benefit from the war against the Palestinian movement. Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The mayor was pleased that “there were no injuries or violent confrontations” in an “organized and calm” operation.
According to New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban, those arrested have been charged with charges of burglary, damage to public property and robbery.
“We’re going to let the criminal justice system do its job,” Caban said, before noting that universities worked for weeks with protesters to resolve the situation and peacefully restore order to their campuses.
“But once it became clear that public safety was a real concern, especially after protesters escalated the situation by storming a university building, the NYPD was called in to do their job,” he emphasized.
Columbia University has been the epicenter in the past two weeks of protests that have spread to other university centers around the country, posing a challenge to administrative authorities trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that rallies They have drifted towards anti-Semitism and hatred.
In a statement issued by Columbia the day before, the administration stressed that the response was against “the actions of the protesters, not their cause.”
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– 2024-05-03 15:58:15
