Police clear protestors from Columbia’s Hamilton Hall after college seeks help

NEW YORK (AP) — Police removed 30 to 40 people from inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall Tuesday evening after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the New York administration building earlier in the day.

Hundreds of NYPD officers took action after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus and called for the help from the department. The occupied building had widened the protesters’ reach from an encampment elsewhere on the Ivy League school’s grounds.

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets, braces and carrying riot shields, gathered at the entrance to the college. Dozens of police officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building, using a raised ramp on top of a police vehicle to enter. Several protesters were arrested and taken off campus on buses.

The clash occurred more than 12 hours after protesters took over Hamilton Hall shortly after midnight Tuesday, extending their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that has been there for nearly two weeks to protest the war between Israel and Hamas. The police action took place on the 56th anniversary of a similar police action to quell the occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.

The university, in a statement released after police entered campus, described its decision to seek help from the NYPD as a last resort. The police department previously said officers would not enter the grounds without a request from college administration or an imminent emergency. From now on, the police will be there until May 17, the end date of the university’s opening ceremonies.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and boarded up, we had no choice,” the school’s statement said, adding that public safety personnel at the The school was forced to leave the building and a facilities worker was “threatened.” .”

“The decision to contact the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, and not the cause they are defending,” the statement said. “We have made it clear that campus life cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law. »

Protests in Columbia began earlier this month and kicked off demonstrations that now stretch from California to Massachusetts. As May opening ceremonies Additionally, administrators face additional pressure to remove protesters.

More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested in the past two weeks on campuses in states including Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jersey, some after clashes with police in riot gear.

Tuesday’s police action in Columbia comes exactly 56 years after officers burst into Hamilton Hall to make arrests. demonstrators occupying the building in 1968. The students arrested on April 30 had taken over the hall and other buildings on campus for a week to protest racism and the Vietnam War.

Former President Donald Trump called into Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News Channel to comment on the unrest in Colombia as live footage of police evacuating Hamilton Hall was broadcast. 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 rather than in a building.” And enormous damage was done too.

In a letter to top NYPD officials, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said the administration was asking police to remove protesters from the occupied building and a nearby tent encampment “with the deepest regret “.

Earlier in the day, New York City Mayor Eric Adams advised protesters to leave before police arrived.

“Walk away from this situation now and continue your advocacy through other means,” he said. “This has to stop now.”

Before police arrived, the White House condemned clashes at Columbia Polytechnic University and California State University in Humboldt, where protesters had occupied two buildings until baton-wielding police intervened. during the night and arrest 25 people. Authorities estimated the total damage at the Northern California campus to be more than $1 million.

President Joe Biden believes student occupation of a university building is “absolutely the wrong approach” and “is not an example of peaceful protest,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

Other colleges have sought to negotiate deals with protesters in hopes of holding peaceful commencement ceremonies. As ceasefire negotiations appeared to be gaining momentum, it was unclear whether those talks would inspire an easing of protests.

Northwestern University won a rare victory when officials said they reached a compromise with students and faculty who make up the majority of protesters on its campus near Chicago to allow peaceful demonstrations until the end of spring classes .

The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to the Israeli offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. The militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. By promising to eradicate Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local Health Ministry.

Israel and its supporters have called the university protests anti-Semitic, while Israel’s critics say it is using the allegations to silence opposition. Although some demonstrators have been filmed making anti-Semitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protest against the war.

On the Columbia campus, protesters first set up a tent encampment nearly two weeks ago. The school sent police to clear the tents the next day, arresting more than 100 people, before students returned — and inspired a wave of similar encampments on campuses across the country.

Negotiations between protesters and the college have stalled in recent days, and the school has set a deadline for activists to abandon the tent encampment Monday afternoon or face suspension.

Instead, protesters defied the ultimatum and took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying furniture and metal barricades. Protesters nicknamed the building Hind’s Hall, in honor of a young girl killed in Gaza under Israeli fire, and called for divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.

The Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors said efforts by professors to help defuse the situation were repeatedly ignored by the university administration, despite the bylaws of the school which require consultation.

Ilana Lewkovitch, a self-described “left-wing Zionist” student at Columbia, said it has been difficult to concentrate on school for weeks, amid calls for Zionists to die or leave campus. Her exams were punctuated by chants in the background: “Say it loud, say it clearly, we want the Zionists out of here,” she said.

Lewkovitch, who identifies as Jewish and studied at Columbia’s Tel Aviv campus, said she wishes current pro-Palestinian protests were more open to people like her who criticize Israel’s war policies but believe there should be an Israeli state.

Adams claimed Tuesday that the Columbia protests had been “co-opted by outside professional agitators.” The mayor did not provide any specific evidence to support this claim, which was disputed by protest organizers and participants.

NYPD officials have made similar statements about “outside agitators” during the massive grassroots protests against racial injustice that erupted in the city following the death of George Floyd in 2020. In some cases, senior NYPD officials police have falsely characterized them as peaceful marches organized by well-known neighborhoods. activists as the work of violent extremists.

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Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press journalists from across the country contributed to this report, including Joseph B. Frederick, Colleen Long, Karen Matthews, Jim Vertuno, Hannah Schoenbaum, Sarah Brumfield, Stefanie Dazio, Christopher Weber, Carolyn Thompson, Dave Collins, Makiya Seminera, Philip Marcelo and Corey Williams.

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This story has been corrected to show that Columbia University has not canceled its main graduation event.