AOC condemns ‘nightmare in the making’ after NYPD officers storm Columbia protests

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has blasted New York City’s mayor and the presidents of Columbia University over a “nightmare in the making” as hundreds of NYPD officers stormed and cleared out a building on campus.

Dozens of student protestors were believed to have been detained after police were seen entering Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus, renamed by activists as “Hind’s Hall” in honour of a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza.

Columbia officials said on Tuesday evening that they were “left with no choice” but to involve the police after they said non-students were involved in the hall’s occupation.

Mayor Eric Adams also spoke on Tuesday evening, stating that what was once a peaceful protest has been “co-opted by professionals outside agitators.”

The mayor urged the occupiers to leave the area, asking parents or guardians of any students to call their children and ask them to leave “before the situation escalates in any way.”

“This is for their own safety and for the safety of others,” Mr Adams said. “These external actors are obviously not students, and their presence on campus is a violation of Columbia’s clearly stated policy.”

Later that evening, NYPD officers headed onto the campus and the occupied hall, using a tactical SWAT ramp to get into Hamilton Hall’s upper floors.

Police shut down several city blocks ahead of their raid.

A few hours after Mr Adams urged students to retreat from the area, Ms Ocasio-Cortez– a Democratic congresswoman for New York— condemned the actions being taken and pleaded with the Mayor to rethink his strategy.

She wrote on X: “If any kid is hurt tonight, responsibility will fall on the mayor and univ presidents. Other leaders and schools have found a safe, de-escalatory path. This is the opposite of leadership and endangers public safety. A nightmare in the making. I urge the Mayor to reverse course.”

Fellow New York congressman Jamaal Bowman also reacted to Tuesday evening’s events on Columbia’s campus, saying he was “outraged” by the heavy police presence called upon “nonviolent student protestors.”

“I call upon the Columbia administration to stop this dangerous escalation before it leads to further harm, and allow the faculty back onto campus so that all parties can collectively come to a solution that centers humanity over hate,” Mr Bowman said.

Arrests began shortly after 9pm with detained protestors led away, some of them carried by officers, to police buses down the road.

By 11pm, the NYPD daid their campus crackdown was over and that Hamilton Hall had been cleared along with encampments on the campus ground.

No demonstrators resisted arrest, and there were no reports of any injuries, the NYPD said.

After the police raid was concluded, Columbia University issued a statement saying that they made the decision to call on the NYPD to their campus.

“We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalised, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” they said in part.

Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, has also reportedly requested that the NYPD maintain a presence on the campus until May 17 – two days after the university’s graduation ceremony, according to CNN.

Columbia is one of many universities across the US where pro-Palestine protests have been set in in the forms of encampments, occupations and demonstrations as theIsrael’s war on Hamas continues in Gaza.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested on various campuses, with reports of heavy force used by law enforcement in attempts to crack down on the protests.