Dramatic footage leaked in the media in which police are shown climbing a ladder to enter Hamilton Hall and remove students. Also, arrests were reported.
Previously, the university had told the students to leave or face expulsion. Now, the demonstrators want the university to divest from Israel over its continuing deadly military operation in the Gaza Strip.
According to the reports the New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were authorized to enter the Hamilton Hall by university authorities, after student demonstrators defied a deadline to disperse. One student told the BBC that around 80-100 police officers had stormed the building.
Columbia said that after the hall was occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice. Further, in a notice to the NYPD, university president Minouche Shafik wrote that she requested police aid with the utmost regret.
The BBc’s US partner, CBS News, reported that the NYPD officers used flashbang grenades to disorient protesters as the raid commenced.
Some crowds alleged that police clad in riot gear manhandled demonstrators as they stormed the building, with one telling the BBC that three people had been pushed down the stairs by NYPD officers. Further, the interview was cut short moments later after an officer interrupted and slammed shut a window through which the conversation had been happening.
Defending the officer, Carlos Nieves, NYPD assistant commissioner of public information, said that students had barricaded the doors to Hamilton Hall with conference tables, chairs, and soda machines. He also added that they blocked windows with newspapers so officers couldn’t see.
As per the CBS reports, there were about 50 arrests. And many NYPD buses were seen leaving the scene, likely filled with protesters.
Huge cheers of support by anti-war crowds were heard as the arrested students were marched off with their hands in zip ties, she added. In this scenario, people chanted “Let them go” again and again.
The NYPD later reported that the building was cleared, and no injuries were spotted.
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