Police Enter Columbia University Campus, Begin Breaking Up Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations
NEW YORK—Police entered Columbia University’s campus late Tuesday and began starting to break up pro-Palestinian demonstrations there, including pushing crowds away from the area around a building occupied by protesters.
New York Police Department officers entered campus through a gate near a school library and told people to disperse, yelling for them to exit from the premises. The NYPD had amassed outside the Manhattan campus earlier in the evening while saying they were awaiting word from Columbia officials to come to the school’s aid.
The increasingly tense standoff “must end now,” Mayor Eric Adams said as police gathered near the campus. City officials alleged that outsiders not affiliated with the school were escalating tactics and mixing in with protesters, including inside the barricaded Hamilton Hall.
“Our students are not a danger to anybody and they will remain here until they’re forced out,” said Sueda Polat, a Columbia graduate student and an encampment organizer, while police were ushering people away from Hamilton Hall.
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