New York City Mayor Eric Adams claimed professional organizers were among the nearly 300 protesters arrested on city campuses Tuesday night, and those organizers were part of a global effort to “radicalize young people.”
Adams’ remarks on Wednesday come after the New York City Police Department arrested 117 people at Columbia University and 173 at the City College of New York, after both schools asked for assistance with ongoing anti-Israel protests.
During a press conference Wednesday, police and city officials did not clarify how many professional organizers were arrested. They said police were investigating each person arrested for connection to the schools, and it would take time to determine who was not affiliated.
"These external actors are obviously not students, and their presence on campus is a violation of Columbia’s clearly stated policy," Adams said.
"This group … is an outside agitator with a history of escalating a situation and trying to create chaos. It is our belief they are now actively co-opting what should be a peaceful gathering. This is to serve their own agenda. They are not here to promote peace or unity or allow a peaceful display of one's voice. They are here to create discord and divisiveness."
NYPD said some of the outsiders have been known to them for years. At least one professional organizer, Lisa Fithian , was seen helping breach Columbia's Hamilton Hall, but little other widespread evidence exists of outside agitators at Columbia.
During the press conference, Adams also acknowledged the negative history of tying " outside agitators " to peaceful protests, a trope that has been used to undermine the legitimacy of civil rights and other movements. However, he reiterated that it was these external actors who hijacked the student protest and escalated the conflict.
NYPD deputy commissioner Tarik Sheppard tried to support Adam’s claim of outside agitators driving the protests by showing a chain and a bike lock on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, saying, “this is what professionals bring to campuses and universities.”
But a similar Kryptonite orange bike lock is being sold by the university to students via its public safety department.
Tuesday night, the NYPD cleared Columbia University's buildings and the campus encampment occupied by protesters. The school requested help in a letter to the NYPD after protesters began occupying and barricading Hamilton Hall. This seemed to be a breaking point for the university , as they had be criticized for allowing the protests to carry on this long.
City College has seen a much-less-publicized pro-Palestinian protest in New York City, despite NYPD making more arrests there than at Columbia. A letter marked from The City College of New York Office of the President from an unnamed person requested help from the NYPD if protesters refused to leave an encampment set up on a university’s campus.
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NYPD threatened City College protesters with arrest if they refused to leave, and a video shows police advancing on protesters in the encampment, presumably arresting many of those people.
Nationwide pro-Palestinian protests continue on college campuses as the nation grapples with conflicting public opinions on the Hamas-Israel conflict.
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