College protests live: Dozens of pro-Palestinian activists arrested as NYPD under fire for crackdown

Columbia University’s President Nemat Minouche Shafik defended the school’s decision to call in the NYPD to break up Gaza protests on campus.

She said on Friday that the school tried to negotiate with student protesters before they “crossed a new line” during the overnight hours on Tuesday when they occupied Hamiltion Hall.

The president said the past two weeks had been the most difficult in the school’s history.

“The university made a sincere and good offer but it was not accepted,” she said in a video posted to Instagram. “A group of protesters crossed a new line with the occupation of Hamilton Hall. It was a violent act that put our students at risk, as well as putting the protesters at risk. I walked through the building and saw the damage which was distressing.”

The Chicago Police Department said it has been in contact with the University of Chicago concerning ongoing Gaza protests on the school’s campus.

“Obviously, we are in communication with leadership in most of these situations,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters during a press briefing. “What we don’t want to do as a police department is escalate the situation unnecessarily. So we take our time, we assess the situations and if it’s not necessary for us to go in and attempt to start removing people, then we won’t.”

The city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, said his administration was committed to “providing a safe, secure place where the First Amendment can ultimately be protected,” and praised the city’s police for opting for “deescalation” over violent crackdowns.

Discussions have flared up on social media as to why CUNY Gaza protesters who were arrested during a police raid have been charged with felonies, while students arrested at Columbia only received misdemeanour charges.

CUNY Public Safety officers arrested 22 people for allegedly occupying a building. They were ultimate charged with 3rd-degree burglary, a Class D felony. Five of the protesters were arrested off campus by the NYPD, and were charged with 2nd-degree assault, another Class D felony.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said that as the investigation continues, more charges may be brought against the CUNY arrestees.

Meanwhile, the 48 students arrested at Columbia were arrested on charges that include 3rd-degree burglary, “hate crime burglary,” criminal mischief, and reckless endangerment. However, while they were arrested on those charges, the students reportedly were not actually charged with those crimes, City and State New York reports.

Instead, they were arraigned on criminal trespassing charges, which is a Class B misdemeanour.

It is unclear why the CUNY students were charged differently from the Columbia students, especially considering they were initially arrested on charges similar to those brought against the CUNY students.

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary has warned that students who have taken part in pro-Palestine protests recently may be “screwed” when they are applying for jobs in the future.

Mr O’Leary’s remarks came amid a wave of protests across campuses in the US over Joe Biden’s Israel policy, which have seen hundreds of people arrested.

The protests began at Columbia University, where protesters were demanding that their university divest from companies with ties to Israel, and have since spread to other campuses including NYU and UCLA, after more than 100 people, including students, were arrested for trespassing at Columbia, with the university also suspending some students for taking part in the protests.

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Dean Kahler flung himself to the ground and covered his head when the bullets started flying. The Ohio National Guard had opened fire on unarmed war protesters at Kent State University, and Kahler, a freshman, was among them.

M1 rifle rounds hit the ground all around him. “And then I got hit,” Kahler recalled, more than 50 years later. “It felt like a bee sting.” But it was far worse than that — a bullet had gone through his lung, shattered three vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord. He was paralyzed.

Four Kent State students were killed and Kahler and eight others were injured when National Guard members fired into a crowd on May 4, 1970, following a tense exchange in which troops used tear gas to break up an anti-war demonstration and protesters hurled rocks at the guardsmen. It was a watershed moment in U.S. history — a violent bookend to the turbulent 1960s — that galvanized campus protests nationwide and forced the temporary shutdown of hundreds of colleges and universities.

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The University of Tenneesee has defended its decision to call police in to break up ongoing Gaza protests on campus on Thursday night.

The administration released a statement saying demonstrators could not “monopolize university property for an indefinite period of time.”

“We apply laws and policies to everyone equally and without prejudice to preserve the use and enjoyment of university property and protect the safety of members of our community,” University Chancellor Donde Plowman said in a statement. “A group of individuals does not have the right to monopolize university property for an indefinite period of time.”

Nine people were arrested, including seven students and two other individuals.