Nearly 300 arrested after police cleared protesters from Columbia

(NewsNation) — Police cleared 30 to 40 people from inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall late Tuesday and made dozens of arrests after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the administration building earlier in the day.

Police arrested 282 people — 173 at The City College of New York and 119 at Columbia — NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said during a news conference Wednesday. He said the NYPD is still working to determine how many agitators were arrested.

Police confirmed to NewsNation that several people were still being processed and many protestors were released Wednesday morning.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that police have identified organizations and people with a history of escalating situations. Though people who entered Hamilton Hall included students, Adams insisted that “it was led by individuals who were not affiliated with the university.”

“There is a movement to radicalize young people. And I’m not going to wait until it is done to acknowledge the existence of it,” Adams said.

New York Police Department officers entered the campus Tuesday evening after the university requested help, according to a statement released by the university. A tent encampment on the school’s grounds was also cleared.

“Because my first responsibility is safety, with the support of the University’s Trustees, I made the decision to ask the New York City Police Department to intervene to end the occupation of Hamilton Hall and dismantle the main encampment along with a new, smaller encampment,” a statement from Columbia President Minouche Shafik read in part.

Carlos Nieves, an NYPD spokesperson, said there were no immediate reports of any injuries.

University issued shelter-in-place order

Columbia University issued a shelter-in-place order Tuesday evening as scores of police officers in riot gear swarmed near the New York campus while the protesters had continued to occupy the building to demonstrate against the Israel-Hamas war.

Shortly before officers entered the campus, the New York Police Department received a notice from Columbia authorizing officers to take action. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall.

“We believe that the group that broke into and occupied the building is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University.  Sadly, this dangerous decision followed more than a week of what had been productive discussions with representatives of the West Lawn encampment.”

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the college’s entrance. Scores of officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building, streaming in over a ramp raised from the top of a police vehicle to get inside. Multiple protesters were taken into custody and taken away from campus on buses.

NewsNation’s Brooke Shafer was live at the scene during “Banfield” and joined by Patrick, a man who lives nearby.

“All of us. We’re the same. We’re just people. We’re just human beings, and we keep separating. We need to come together. It kills me. People don’t learn until it’s too late,” he said.

NewsNation’s Rich McHugh, also live at the scene, spoke with a Jewish student who said his Israeli flag was burned by protesters and that his brother had a rock thrown at his head.

“Everyone wears masks so they can’t get in trouble. We’ve been warning that this kind of mob mentality is gonna lead to more violence. We saw last night. It was just anarchy,” the student said.

Protesters at the university who barricaded themselves inside the academic building on campus early Tuesday could face expulsion, a spokesperson said.

This comes after university administrators suspended and arrested student protesters who failed to clear out from an encampment erected on campus earlier this month to protest Israel’s military action in Gaza, which has killed an estimated 34,000 Palestinians.

Now, the university has limited access to the campus as the demonstrations continue. Members of the university who can avoid coming to the Morningside campus are being urged to stay away by Columbia’s administration. Currently, only “essential personnel” and those with a university ID are being let inside the school.

The Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors said the faculty’s efforts to help defuse the situation have been repeatedly ignored by the university’s administration, despite school statutes that require consultation. The group warned of potential conflict between police officers nearby and protesters on campus.

“We hold University leadership responsible for the disastrous lapses of judgment that have gotten us to this point,” the chapter said in a statement late Tuesday. “The University President, her senior staff, and the Board of Trustees will bear responsibility for any injuries that may occur during any police action on our campus.”

Columbia University student Parker De Deker told NewsNation on Wednesday that students were surprised by the significant NYPD presence during Tuesday’s shelter-in-place order. He expressed disappointment in learning about the order from outside sources rather than from the university, which he considers a breach of trust in the partnership between Columbia and its students.

Columbia University student Rory Wilson recounted how he and a friend tried to stop protesters from barricading inside Hamilton Hall until police came, but no help arrived.

“People were making 911 calls since the situation was getting pretty extreme, so I was expecting that there possibly would be some sort of campus security response, NYPD response. We were just waiting out and seeing if that would come and ultimately that didn’t come,” Wilson said.

He added: “It’s been quite chaotic even for people who have tried to avoid the situation as much as possible.”

It was 56 years ago, April 30, 1968, that the NYPD marched into Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall and arrested students protesting the Vietnam War.

Protesters barricade in Hamilton Hall

Video footage from overnight showed protesters on Columbia’s Manhattan campus carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building, one of several that was occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest on the campus.

Demonstrators could be seen in videos, covered in masks and headwear, and placing wooden chairs and metal tables in front of the doors after breaking a window to enter the building. Throughout the day, student protesters in the barricaded building could be seen pulling food up with ropes.

“We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. Our top priority is restoring safety and order on our campus,” Ben Chang, a Columbia University spokesperson said in a statement. “We made it very clear yesterday that the work of the University cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules. Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences.”

David Pomerantz, a Columbia student, told NewsNation that he was not personally afraid for his safety, but “as a collective,” he felt the demonstrations were an unsafe situation.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest, meanwhile, in a statement Monday, said student protesters had been put in danger by the university after administrators instituted a “police state with military-style checkpoints, repressing and isolating students on campus, calling armed riot cops for the largest mass arrests on campus since 1968, and weaponizing food insecurity and houselessness as leverage in negotiations.”

“Columbia has forced protestors to escalate by contributing to a genocide while refusing to follow baseline stands of conduct that make negotiation possible,” the organization said.

Earlier this month, over 100 protesters were arrested at Columbia after university officials called the New York Police Department on them. However, Columbia administrators said they do not have plans to call the NYPD again at this time.

The NYPD told CNN that it would not enter the campus without a request from Columbia University.

As protesters entered Hamilton on Tuesday, they unfurled a Palestinian flag out of a window.

Demonstrators shouted “shut it down” and formed a human chain around the academic building.

“An autonomous group reclaimed Hind’s Hall, previously known as ‘Hamilton Hall,’ in honor of Hind Rajab, a martyr murdered at the hands of the genocidal Israeli state at the age of six years old,” CU Apartheid Divest posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.

Speaking in a news conference Tuesday, New York Mayor Eric Adams urged any external actors participating in the Columbia protest to leave the area immediately.

Rajab was found in January of this year, lying in a “battered and bullet-ridden vehicle,” NBC News reported. In the days before Rajab’s death, she and her family had tried to flee the devastation in Gaza, but a bombing near a gas station killed her relatives. The Palestine Red Crescent Society later released a phone call of Rajab pleading with emergency dispatchers to “come take me, please, will you come? with the little girl saying she was “so scared.” When dispatchers asked Rajab if she was surrounded by Israeli gunfire, Hind had said “yes,” NBC wrote. A rescue worker eventually was able to reach Rajab, finding her, her family members, and two paramedics who had tried to save her all deceased.

Columbia is one of many colleges nationwide that have seen demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war.

Columbia University suspends students

This all came after Columbia University officials gave students one last chance Monday deadline to leave the encampment or face suspension. Yet, protesters continued to chant “Free Palestine” far past that deadline with dozens of tents still on campus.

The hall’s takeover occurred nearly 12 hours after Monday’s 2 p.m. deadline.

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that there must be “accountability” for the building takeover, “whether that’s disciplinary action from the school or from law enforcement.”

Asked about the protests, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said President Joe Biden believes that “forcibly” taking over a building on campus is “the wrong approach.”

“A small percentage of students shouldn’t be able to disrupt the academic experience, the legitimate study, for the rest of the student body,” Kirby said. “Students paying to go to school and want an education are to be able to do that without disruption and they ought to be able to do it and feel safe doing it.”

The office of the U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, meanwhile, expressed concern about “heavy-handed steps” taken to dismantle protests on U.S. campuses, while stressing that antisemitic, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian comments were “totally unacceptable and deeply disturbing.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres later told reporters that “it is up to the university authorities to have the wisdom to properly manage situations like the ones we have witnessed.”

Demonstrations across the nation

Universities across the U.S. are grappling with how to deal with encampments as commencement ceremonies approach, with some continuing negotiations and others turning to force and ultimatums that have resulted in clashes with police.

Dozens of people were arrested Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah and Virginia.

At the University of Texas at Austin, an attorney said at least 40 demonstrators were arrested Monday. The confrontation was an escalation on the 53,000-student campus in the state’s capital, where more than 50 protesters were arrested last week. Demonstrators were seen dragged by their feet as well as pouring water in their eyes after being pepper sprayed. State troopers confronted protesters with tear gas and flash bangs.

Gov. Gregg Abbott made his position clear, posting to X, “No encampments will be allowed. Instead, arrests are being made.”

At the University of California, Los Angeles, pro-Palestinian demonstrators and pro-Israeli counter-protesters got into a scuffle Monday night, NewsNation local affiliate KTLA reported.

Pushing, shoving and shouting between the groups could be seen on videos from around 11:30 p.m. This happened after about 60 counter-protesters tried to breach the encampment, which KTLA said was blocking access to Royce Quad. Before that, the counter-protesters had used a megaphone to shout and play music in front of the tents, surrounded by wood and metal fencing.

A handful of UCLA police officers in riot gear responded to the area, with several security guards, forcing the counter-protesters to move back.

UCLA said in a statement Tuesday that it “significantly increased” its security presence on campus. Claiming there had been a report of a student’s access to class being blocked by demonstrators, May Osako, vice chancellor for UCLA Strategic Communications, said the university has initiated its student conduct process, which could lead to “severe disciplinary action including expulsion or suspension.”

At around 6 a.m. Tuesday, at least 30 people were arrested on trespassing charges among others at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Still, students and faculty put on a silent protest for about 30 minutes on campus, and vowed to return later. NewsNation local affiliate WNCN reported that classes for the remainder of the day were canceled, with non-mandatory operations suspended.

At one point, protesters brought down the U.S. flag and replaced it with the Palestinian flag, WNCN reported. Officers came down to the UNC quad to take down the Palestinian flag. One of them was seen by a WNCN crew using an aerosol spray to deter protesters.

The number of arrests at campuses nationwide is approaching 1,000 as the final days of class wrap up.

The outcry is forcing colleges to reckon with their financial ties to Israel, as well as their support for free speech. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus. Protesters have said, though, that those being antisemitic do not represent them and pointed out that many Jewish students are joining them in their cause. Some student demonstrators held signs saying “Jews for Free Palestine” or “Jews for Palestine,” while pictures on social media circulated of Passover seders being held at the encampments.

In addition, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine wrote last week that they fielded “many reports of physical aggression and keffiyehs being pulled off.”

University negotiations continue

In a rare case, Northwestern University said it reached an agreement with students and faculty who represent the majority of protesters on its campus near Chicago. It allows peaceful demonstrations through the June 1 end of spring classes and in exchange, requires the removal of all tents except one for aid tent, and restricts the demonstration area to allow only students, faculty and staff unless the university approves otherwise.

At Yale, campus police issued a final warning Tuesday morning for any protesters to leave or face consequences, including suspension and arrest for trespassing. According to the statement, all student protesters chose to leave the encampment and Yale has started clearing tents off campus.

“Yale fully supports peaceful protests and freedom of speech; however, claiming control of our shared space is inconsistent with our principles and values. The university does not tolerate the violation of its longstanding policies on using on-campus outdoor spaces, postering and chalking, or the use of amplified sound,” the Yale Police Department said.

At the University of Southern California, organizers of a large encampment sat down with university President Carol Folt for about 90 minutes Monday. Folt declined to discuss details but said she heard the concerns of protesters and talks would continue Tuesday.

USC sparked a controversy April 15 when officials refused to allow the valedictorian, who has publicly supported Palestinians, to make a commencement speech, citing nonspecific security concerns for their rare decision. Administrators then scrapped the keynote speech by filmmaker Jon M. Chu, who is an alumnus, and declined to award any honorary degrees.

The backlash, as well as Columbia’s demonstrations, inspired the encampment and protests on campus last week where 90 people were arrested by police in riot gear. The university has canceled its main graduation event, although individual school ceremonies will continue with extra security precautions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.