The New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested 282 protestors at Columbia University and City University of New York (CUNY) on Tuesday night, Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD revealed in a Wednesday press conference.
The NYPD arrested 173 protestors at CUNY and 119 protestors from Columbia, NYPD Patrol Chief John Chell told reporters during the press conference.
Many of the arrestees were “outside agitators” and not students or affiliated with any of the universities, the NYPD revealed.
“There are a number of different individuals who we know from over the years associated with protests not just in our city but in other cities as well who are linked to and who we see doing training around the change in tactics that we described yesterday and that we all witnessed,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence & Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner shared. “The Black Block attire, the breaking Windows, breaking doors, the vandalism, property destruction, the barricading, makeshift weapons that we recovered in the encampment. And so that change in tactics combined with the presence of known individuals on campus in the leadup to what happened in Hamilton Hall is why we had a real elevated concern around public safety.”
Weiner’s comments Wednesday corroborate Tuesday night comments from Eric Adams. “I have been saying for days, if not weeks now, that which should have been a peaceful protest … it has basically been co-opted by professional outside agitators,” Adams said Tuesday night.
The NYPD made the arrests after protestors overtook Columbia’s Hamilton Hall early Tuesday morning. Columbia released a statement informing students and the public that the arrests came at the request of the school. (RELATED: Watch Columbia Protester’s Entire Worldview Collapse In Seconds From A Few Simple Questions)
“A little after 9 p.m. this evening, the NYPD arrived on campus at the University’s request. This decision was made to restore safety and order to our community,” the statement read.
The decision to call NYPD marks the second time the University has done so in recent weeks. Following the first instance, where NYPD detained protestors and cleared the campus of tents that had been erected by Pro-Palestine agitators. The incident potentially spurned the nationwide eruption of protests on campuses across the country as Columbia’s protestors responded with increased presence on campus in the following days.