The morning after the NYPD broke up the Columbia University and City College protests and arrested scores of demonstrators, Mayor Eric Adams and the department continued to insist Wednesday that “outside agitators” were responsible for the unrest, but without providing specific examples.
Heavily armored police quashed protesters’ siege of Hamilton Hall and the encampments set up on Columbia University and in City College, arresting 282 people at both locations. Police are still working to figure out how many students were among those locked up.
Still, Hizzoner insisted that both demonstrators were co-opted and incited by professional agitators looking to influence young New Yorkers and whip them into a violent frenzy.
“There are those who are attempting to say that the majority of people there are students, you don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-opt an operation,” Mayor Adams said. “There is a movement to radicalize young people. I’m not going to wait until it’s done, and all of a sudden acknowledge its existence.”
Adams and police said this stems back to the BLM movement and is being documented by authorities across the country. However, when asked to provide details on the “outside agitators,” they refused to do so, citing intelligence concerns.
“There are people that we have been watching and organizations that are not part of the campus,” Adams added. “We are not going to release any information that is too sensitive.”
Authorities appear to use the term “outside agitators” to describe anyone in the protest who is not officially a student.
Holding up a letter from Columbia University that requested police intervention, Adams and the NYPD claimed that the outside forces instructed students how to break into Hamilton Hall and use tactics to occupy it.
Police Commissioner Edward Caban said that protesters used bike locks and large heavy-duty chains on every single door on the building in an attempt to barricade themselves inside while footage released from the NYPD showed cops climbing over and removing furniture used as an attempted barricade.
“They tried to lock us out, but the NYPD and the people of the city of New York will never be locked out,” Caban said, holding up a heavy bike lock chain before letting it drop to his desk with a rattling thud. “We will all work together to keep our citizens safe.”
Cops flooded into Columbia University’s campus gates on April 30, and entered Hamilton Hall through an open window after being elevated by a specialist armored police vehicle known as a Bearcat.
While inside cops used a flash bang to disorientate demonstrators before taking them into custody, on the outside, a massive police operation began dismantling the encampment on the lawn, where arrests were also made.
According to NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, cops also had to divert some resources from Columbia to City College.
Chief of Patrol John Chell said that 109 arrests were made at Columbia, while 173 were cuffed at City College.
