Protesters taken into custody as police end university pro-Palestine occupation
1 May 2024, 04:04
Police ended the occupation after they were invited to enter campus by the university.
Protesters have been taken into custody late on Tuesday after Columbia University called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) to end the pro-Palestinian occupation on campus.
Police said the university’s Hamilton Hall was cleared of pro-Palestinian protesters who took over building on Tuesday.
The scene unfolded shortly after 9pm as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university’s entrance.
Officers breached Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, to clear out the structure.
The demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere that has been there for nearly two weeks.
A statement released by a Columbia spokesperson late on Tuesday said officers arrived on campus after the university requested help.
The move came hours after the NYPD said officers would not enter the university campus without university request or an imminent emergency.
“After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalised, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the Columbia statement said, adding that school public safety personnel were forced out of the building and one facilities worker was “threatened”.
“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing. We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.”
More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested over the last two weeks on university campuses in Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jersey.
The White House condemned the standoffs at Columbia on Tuesday and California State Polytechnic University Humboldt earlier in the week.
Other universities have sought to negotiate agreements with the demonstrators in the hopes of having peaceful commencement ceremonies.
On Tuesday afternoon, New York City mayor Eric Adams urged the Columbia protesters to “walk away” and advised them to “continue your advocacy through other means”.
He added: “This must end now.”
Protesters at Columbia and California State Polytechnic University Humboldt had occupied two buildings until officers with batons intervened overnight.
The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.
Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.
In return, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.
