Columbia has 'made clear' it 'does not want NYPD' on campus as pro-Hamas occupation takes over school
The New York Police Department said that its invitation to campus Thursday, during which it made over 100 arrests, was an 'exceptional case.'
The New York Police Department said that Columbia University administrators haven’t asked for their assistance after the agency made over 100 arrests on Thursday.
During a press conference, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters Mike Gerber said that the law enforcement agency hasn’t been asked back on campus after it made over 100 arrests on Thursday.
The protest was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and several others. They began a tent encampment on the Columbia lawn on Wednesday just before university leadership testified at a Congressional hearing on anti-Semitism.
”So there has been a small number of instances in connection with some protests on campus where there was a request for police presence,” stating that Columbia administrators have asked for police assistance on October 12, 2023 and on Thursday. “So the university makes decisions about who they let on their campus we’re dealing with on their campus for, you know, they’re doing their own analysis making their own decisions making their own safety determinations. That’s not us.”
Gerber said that Columbia University “does not want NYPD present on campus. That is their decision.”
”Last week, on Thursday, they informed us they had students who were trespassing, they asked us to come on to campus to take action. And we did. But that was an exceptional case. In the normal course, they have made clear that we’re not to be there. And so and so we’re not there,” said Gerber. “Now, around the university, in the streets around the university, that’s public property. There, we have a very large police presence. And our officers obviously are going to take action to to prevent crime, and to make arrests if there is a crime. So obviously, any kind of violence is not going to be tolerated. Any kind of property damage is not going to be is not going to be tolerated.”
An NYPD spokesperson said later in the press conference that the agency has received reports of Israeli students walking on campus who had flags “snatched” out of their hands.
Protests over the weekend ramped up, and in one instance, Jewish students walking by the protest were yelled at and told to “Go back to Europe” and “go back to Poland.”
”You have no culture” and “All you do is colonize,” were yelled by protesters.
The level of gaslighting we’re seeing from this NBC & MSNBC journalist about Columbia is unbelievable.
There are literally hundreds of videos showing harassment and threats against Jewish students. Here are just a few https://t.co/TPaYcPe0K1 pic.twitter.com/GwJWIgJG8I— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 22, 2024
In one instance, protesters yelled in Arabic “Oh Hamas, oh loved one, hit/strike Tel Aviv,” video on social media showed.