NY. With the arrest of a hundred people and the eviction of protesters in solidarity with Palestine and who reject the complicity of the United States in Israel’s war against the Gaza Strip who were occupying the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia University, the police of New York concluded an operation that began about two hours earlier at around 11:50 p.m.
The corporation said that there were no injuries, and that the tent camp set up by the university students was dismantled. The agents were tonight raising the barricades erected by the protesters, NBC noted.
Tonight’s eviction took place on the second floor of the building, hours after about 40 people were detained on the first floor during the morning, NBC added.
Hundreds of police officers stormed Columbia University tonight to end a pro-Palestinian occupation of that administrative building and sweep out a protest encampment, acting after the think tank’s president, Minouche Shafik, asserted that There was no other way to ensure security and restore order on campus.
The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. when police, wearing helmets and riot shields, gathered at the entrance to the university. Dozens of officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building and stormed down an elevated ramp from the top of a police vehicle. Several protesters were detained and taken off campus on buses.
The confrontation occurred more than 12 hours after protesters took over Hamilton Hall shortly after midnight Tuesday, extending their reach from a camp elsewhere on campus that has been there for nearly two weeks to protest the war on Israel against Hamas.
The police action occurred on the 56th anniversary of a similar police action to quell an occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
The university, in a statement issued after police entered the campus, said requesting help from the New York Police Department was its last resort. The police department previously stated that officers would not enter the campus without the request of university authorities or an imminent emergency. Now, law enforcement will be there until May 17, when the university’s graduation events end.
“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and locked, we were left with no choice,” the University statement said, adding that the school’s public safety staff He was forced to leave the building and a facility worker was “threatened.”
“The decision to approach the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they defend,” the University stressed in its statement. “We have made it clear that campus life cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law,” she said.
Protests in Columbia began earlier this month and kicked off demonstrations that now stretch from California to Massachusetts. As May graduation ceremonies approach, university officials face additional pressure to expel protesters.
More than a thousand protesters have been arrested in the past two weeks at universities in states including Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jersey, some after clashes with police in riot gear.
Hours earlier, New York City Mayor Eric Adams advised protesters to leave before police arrived. “Get away from this situation now and continue your defense by other means,” he said. “This must end now.”
Before officers arrived, the White House condemned clashes at Columbia and California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt, where protesters had occupied two buildings until baton-wielding officers intervened overnight and arrested 25 people. Authorities estimated total damage to the Northern California campus at more than $1 million. At the University of South Florida, clashes with protesters and police using tear gas were reported.
President Joe Biden believes that the occupation of the facilities by students is “absolutely the wrong approach” and “is not an example of peaceful protest,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Former President Donald Trump called into Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News Channel to comment on the unrest in Columbia as live footage aired of police clearing Hamilton Hall. Trump praised the officers.
“But it should never have come to this,” he told Hannity. “And they should have done it a lot sooner than before they took over the building because it would have been a lot easier if they were in tents instead of a building. And tremendous damage has also been caused.”
The protests began in Columbia in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a violent attack on southern Israel on October 7. The militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took approximately 250 hostages. Israel, which has vowed to end Hamas, has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local Health Ministry.
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– 2024-05-04 05:27:26
