Columbia custodian breaks silence on protest mob

Longer feels safe there and Francesca Block of the Free Press interviewed him. She joins us now. Good and impressive work to track him down and get him to talk to you to tell you what went on. How’s he doing now? You know Dana, he is really a little bit overwhelmed to be honest. It’s a lot of attention on a subject. He’s just a guy that wants to have a good job, provide for his family. He never expected to be in the spotlight like this, but he’s also really heartened by a lot of the support that he’s now gotten after speaking out, telling his story. And he he’s really grateful for that. A couple of things here. Let’s just go back to this because he’s worried about his job. He’s a father, he’s raised in a family, and he’s worried about retribution against him. Watch here. Is Columbia going to retaliate and find a reason to fire me? Is is someone going to come after me? We are taking a big risk, you know, doing this. But I I I think that I think that they failed. They failed us and I think that’s that’s the that’s the bigger story. They failed us. They should have done more to protect us and they didn’t report, can you report today that the school will take care of him. So I did get a comment from the university yesterday that said that they cannot retaliate against people for speaking out in good faith. And so they said that Mario was a valued member of their community. With that being said, obviously, you know he’s still on edge. His fellow colleagues are still on edge. Trying to figure out what’s going to happen next would be a damn shame if he loses his job. Well, yeah. And I was like, that better not happen. So Lester Wilson was also held in that building at Columbia. And were they held against their will? So they told me essentially, yes, Lester, why are there not kidnapping charges? It’s a great question. I really don’t know the answer to that. But if you ask people like Lester Wilson, like Mario Torres, they would say they had no way out of the building. They were completely at the will of the protesters who barricaded. So Lester Wilson also talked to you. He said that the building is right next to the encampment. Why would you just have one guard? Why don’t you have a police presence? They should have known. It felt like they didn’t even care. They were just worried about the protesters. Don’t hurt the protesters. But what about the safety and security of the workers in the building under these conditions? And so there’s some frustration The union that they belong to is helping them. Yes. So right now, the union that they belong to at Columbia is actually suing on behalf of the workers, saying essentially that the university didn’t do enough to protect them in that moment. OK, we have a photo here. We had it up on screen a moment ago. We can put it back up there. It’s kind of It’s become iconic For this story, The protester held up against the wall was 40 years old, described in your article as a trust fund kid by the name of James Carlson. He owns a townhouse in Brooklyn worth $2.3 million, and his family owns another unit. I think he reported that’s more than $3,000,000. What do you think that we are learning about those from the outside who are contributing to this? Absolutely. I’ve been reporting for months now essentially on the infiltration of what I call multi millionaire Marxists into this movement. Another example of that is the People’s Forum which is a group based in New York City that’s funded by multi multi millionaire Marxist who lives in China. There are a lot of outside influences on this movement who have really deep pockets and are most likely behind some of the funding to make these movements possible. Where do you think this goes from here? Do you think the summer quiets down or what do you get the? I’m also curious about how they feel about Columbia graduation being cancelled. So I think where we go from here is obviously the school year is coming to an end. I I don’t know if students will pick up and leave. I think many of them will at some point. But I do think that we’re starting to see universities getting pretty fed up with this, just starting to crack down. They’re bringing in police and saying you can’t camp out on our campuses. This goes against our rules and how you’re trespassing. It’s great reporting. And thank you for sharing with us and our viewers today. Where can we find you? You can find me at thefreepress.com, which is the fp.com. OK, Thanks for being here. Right, Jessica. Thanks.