Campus Crackdown: 300+ Arrested in Police Raids on Columbia & CCNY to Clear Gaza Encampments

hundreds of students at Colombia

University and City University of New

York were arrested last night after

hundreds of police officers carrying

Shields and in full riot gear raided

Colombia to break up a Gaza solidarity

encampment set up almost two weeks ago

that has inspired similar encampments in

over 40 universities across the country

including CUNY students at Colombia took

over Hamilton Hall a day earlier after

the school began spending students who

refused to leave the gaala solidarity

encampment students renamed the building

hin Hall in honor of hin hind rajab a

six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by

the Israeli military in Gaza the police

raid began after Columbia University

president Manu shafik sent a letter to

the New York City Police Department

calling for the encampment in Hamilton

Hall to be cleared she wrote quote I

have determined that the building

occupation the encampments and related

disruptions pose a clear and present

danger to person's property and the

substantial functioning of the

University unquote President shafik also

asked the police to remain presence on

campus until at least May 17th two days

after graduation to ensure she said that

solidarity encampments are not

reestablished Columbia's graduation is

scheduled for May 15th hundreds of

officers enter the camp campus through

the main gates and encircled the

encampment inside last night police also

pulled a truck outside Hamilton Hall

extended a ladder to a secondstory

window for a stream of officers to climb

into the building further Uptown from

Colombia at the City College of New York

police and riot gear raided the Gaza

solidarity encampment after the

administration made a similar call for

the police to enter campus scores of

students and cuni community members were

arrested overnight the department shared

a video on social media showing officers

lowering a Palestinian flag a top The

City college flag pole balling it up and

throwing it to the ground before raising

the American

flag over the past two weeks police have

swept through other campuses holding

peaceful Gaza solidarity encampments

across the country over 1,00 students

and others have been arrested in a

moment we'll be joined by two Columbia

University students who were on campus

during the police raid but the first

democracy Now was on the streets last

night outside

Columbia I'm Amy Goodman from democracy

now we're standing at 13th in Broadway

it's about 10:30 at night the riot

police have lined up here and it is a

complete Frozen Zone from here up to

Columbia University we understand that

they've moved in on Hamilton Hall that

the students have occupied and we

understand arrests are underway that we

haven't seen it there was a group of

protesters here but they say they're

going to do uh jail support they're

going down to One Police Plaza let's see

if we can find them and ask them why

they're out

here what's your name I'm jeie uh I am

an organizer with Warriors in the garden

I am first generation

korean-american I am a shamed alumni of

NYU uh we are out here as people whose

ethnic Roots originate in the global

South uh to stand against settler

colonialism because no matter how it

looks in every form it kills and we will

not be complicit anymore and this is a

very historic moment where our our youth

in our country are leading the

Revolution and it is all of our

responsibilities to not put that to not

to not just be like oh they're so brave

but to be in to have that inight

something within

us my name is Tom uh I'm an organizer

and I'm here to show support for the

students I think that uh I've been a

I've been Pro Palestinian my whole life

as is my family um I'm Iranian and we

have always found the liberation of

Palestinian people to be essential to

our Liberation as Iranians and

everybody's you know Collective

Liberation are you in R are

you get out the way get out

[Applause]

theeeee free free pal we're standing at

Amsterdam and 113th Street it's about

10:30 11 at night why are you here uh so

I'm a Brown University Alum and uh as

you know one of our own Hisham atini was

shot and also I have a Palestinian

friend who told me that uh for his for

speaking out on Palestine he's been

doxed I mean and he's been kicked off

campus he's lost his housing and food

and he has no family here but he feels

the need to speak on it because his

cousins and family members are under the

rubble right now and he can't reach a

lot of his cousins and so knowing that

you know uh there's not a lot of degree

of separation between Hisham and I and

our other colleague that also lost

family members and has been dxed and

kicked off campus this is the least that

we can do to support our friends is this

why you're wearing a mask even though

we're outside absolutely and we're not

wearing a mask because we're scared but

we're doing this because this is what

our predecessors have told us this is

the right way to protest and this is

what we need to do to protect ourselves

while also speaking and standing up for

what's what's true so I understand

there's an encampment at Brown too and

there's a slogan from Colombia to Brown

we won't let Gaza down have you heard

the latest from there uh so today

actually Brown University passed a

resolution uh

to uh in order to compromise with the

students encampments that they're going

to vote in October on divestment so I

think that's a big victory for the

student encampments for the 41 students

who are arrested and also for the

students who were doing the hunger

strike uh as you may know so yeah the

the vote the agreeing to vote on this

investment is a big step for the student

organizers and they're very proud of it

and I think that's the least we can do

as Alum to support

[Applause]

them we've just spoken to some people

who are supporting the students now the

bus of Arrested students is coming

through are these the the buses are

coming out please back up these are the

arrested students please back up are

they bus I'm not sure what who's in the

buses I know the buses are leaving

please back up

[Applause]

[Music]

okay there's look seems to be an arrest

right now the police have moved in and

they're on top of someone the police

have arrested someone people are

shouting shame he's on the

[Applause]

ground back back up back up back up

let's go move move move back up back up

back up

what's your name what's your name over

230 students and their allies were

arrested at Columbia University last

night when the Colombia president okay

the presence of the New York police

department and their raid of the

University uh dozens of others were

arested just 20 mile 20 blocks north at

city college for more on the police raid

at Colombia we're joined by two guests

Cameron Jones is a Columbia student with

Jewish voice for peace he was outside

Hamilton Hall when police pushed

everyone into nearby buildings and storm

the Hall Cameron is a 19-year-old Urban

Studies major he's joining us here in

studio and Julian Goodman is with us a

student at Columbia journalism School

covering Colombia's ongoing student

protest since the first days of the

encampments she joins us via video

stream we welcome you both to democracy

now uh Jillian Goodman relation that we

know of um Jullian why don't you

describe what happened on campus I mean

what's really fascinating here is the

Columbia J School the journalism School

overlooks the police raid and in fact uh

Columbia journalism students and other

students who were um covering this event

were told by police they'd be arrested

if they didn't stay

inside Julian thanks so much for joining

us absolutely happy to be here um that's

correct Amy and in fact the only reason

that we were able to have access to

campus many of us in the journalism

school is that we had slept in the

building the night before they had

restricted campus to only those students

in residential dorms so the only reason

we were able to witness what we were

able to witness is because we had stayed

in the building um when police arrived

they were extremely efficient in

removing all eyewitnesses including

legal observers um myself and my

colleagues at the journalism School were

pushed with police batons to our backs

and coralled out of the space uh so we

were not able to witness the arrests

headon but some journalism students were

able to remain in the building to

overlook the side of Hamilton Hall but

they were extremely clear and efficient

that they were not to have any

eyewitnesses including the majority of

press during the time that the arrests

were

made and Julian was there any warning

beforehand or any sense that the that

the arrests were

coming there had been a sense for a few

hours as police gathered outside I would

say that no one knew the exact moment

they were going to come in but we knew

pretty clearly within about a 30 minute

window I think there was a tremendous

sense of trepidation but also resolve on

campus that I saw from a lot of the

organizers um we were also served an

emergency alert from Emergency

Management that went throughout to all

Columbia students um issuing a shelter

in place warning in the hour before the

arrests happened and so most students

were coralled into their dorm by campus

safety and that was our tell that the

that the arrests were

imminent we're also joined by Cameron

Jones of Jewish voices for peace Cameron

what did you see uh last night yeah so I

was also one of the students who was

forced into a nearby building once the

police survived on the scene and it was

very clear that the university and the

police did not want any witnesses to the

police brutality that was going to take

place they even pushed Medics and legal

observers into nearby buildings

preventing them from doing their jobs

and then we got a slew of footage from

onlookers that protesters were pushed

and shoved individuals were thrown

downstairs one individual was left uncon

conscious for a few minutes there was

also the police using tasers on Peaceful

protesters and also using a smoke bomb

inside occupied hind Hall so it's very

clear that the police used very

aggressive and very violent tactics to

suppress peaceful

protesters and what about you you were

outside you didn't occupy Hamilton Hall

you were at the encampment do you face

suspension as of now I am not sure what

the university will do unfortunately the

university has arbitrarily suspended

dozens of students already so I would

not be surprised if I do end up facing

suspension unfortunately the response of

the students to the president although

on Friday saying she would not call New

York police on campus calling in those

police who raided Hamilton Hall last

night yeah so the president is

definitely acting in bad faith I would

say she really seems to be doing

anything in her power to suppress

student activism on campus and that

includes bringing in violent police to

violently arrest hundreds of people and

it really appears as though the

president has not learned her lesson

from arresting people a few weeks ago

because the students only come back with

more Fury and with more intensity in

regards to our

activism Cameron I wanted to ask you

about the role of the faculty many of

the faculty condemned the last raid uh

or the first raid that occurred a couple

of weeks ago uh were there faculty out

there trying to interpose themselves

between the students s the police this

time I did not see a substantial faculty

presence but we have had faculty very

present at the encampment acting at

security and we have widespread faculty

support in terms of our opinions towards

the administration faculty is on our

side in condemning what the

administration has been doing and Julian

Goodman uh you have both the president

shafik and New York city mayor uh Adams

Painting the Takeover of Hamilton Hall

as a takeover by outside agitators what

was your sense of who was inside

Hamilton

Hall yes so I was there the the night

that the occupation occurred um there's

no way to know exactly who was involved

but I I know firsthand that there is a

large student presence and also the

thing that surprised me the most was a

massive student support outside there

was a human chain linked arm and arm to

protect the building that was 200

students strong and those are people

that I know to be students of Columbia

and Barnard and a large majority so I

think that mostly this is an effort by

Administration to distance these actions

from the students though I know that

they are deeply resolved in in support

let me ask Cameron Jones H Columbia

student has sued Colombia um for

creating a hostile environment against

Jews you're with Jewish voice for peace

I want to turn right now to a clip this

is Republican house Speaker Mike Johnson

uh facing heckling and booze when he

came to Colombia University a few days

ago calling for President Biden to call

in the National Guard to bring order to

the campus where the students set up the

encampment last week he also called for

Colombia president Manu shafik to step

down Columbia students criticized

Johnson's

visit I here today joining my colleagues

and calling on President shaik to resign

if she cannot immediately bring order to

this

chaos as Speaker of the House I am

committing today that the Congress will

not be silent as Jewish students are

expected to run for their lives and stay

home from their classes hiding in

fear um if you can talk about that as a

member of Jewish voice for peace Cameron

yes so I think as a Jewish student on

campus who represents a group of dozen

of Jewish individuals I would like to

note that Jewish students have been part

of the protest movement on campus since

October and there have been dozens of

Jewish students who have been arrested

for pro Palestine demonstrations so I

think it's really important to recognize

that there is a large anti-zionist

Jewish voice on campus and it's also

important to recognize the difference

between anti-zionism and anti-Semitism

anti-zionism is a is a political

ideology while anti-Semitism is in

regards to Judaism which is a cult

culture and a religion and it's

important to know the distinction

between the two and I think often times

in the mainstream media and and on

campus there is a conflation of the two

and it's really important to recognize

that there has been an intense amount of

hostility towards Pro Palestine

protesters on campus we have faced

harassment we have faced physical and

verbal intimidation I myself have been

docks and have faced death threats

online I have been harassed on campus by

multip individuals and explain what you

mean by docked yeah so I've had my

personal information published online

including pictures social media my

LinkedIn profile Etc in which people can

message me death threats and email me

horrible information and the university

has done nothing to protect Pro

Palestine voices and has been really

cracking down on anyone who is standing

up for Palestinian rights and this

really just shows how Columbia

University is using similar tactics that

the part state of Israel is using to

crack down on Palestinians in occupied

Palestine well we're going to leave it

there but I do want to ask um Julian

Goodman uh the president of Colombia the

president of Barnard has already had an

overwhelming no confidence vote by The

Faculty president of Colombia says she's

asked the police to maintain a presence

on campus through May 17th 2 days after

graduation um what are you expecting as

we saw yesterday the campus almost

completely shut down professors had

their IDs cancelled students couldn't

unless they lived right there uh on the

campus get

in yes I think those actions shattered a

sense that there is free and open access

to our own resources and our own campus

the ways that they were really

effectively able to Bar anyone from that

I think there's really profound

disappointment and anger coming from

shik's decision to retain a police

presence on campus as that has

consistently been an ask I think from

all sides is to remove the police

presence and that is often what creates

a threat and intimidation of violence

much more so than the protests on campus

I watched the police at around 2 am load

the encampment into a trash compacting

dumpster and I watched the community

guidelines get crushed and I think that

to me was the perfect moment of seeing

what that effect can be of having that

police presence on campus Jillian

Goodman a Columbia journalism school

student student covering Colombia's

ongoing student protest since the first

days of the encampments and Cameron

Jones Columbia College student with

Jewish voice for peace we thank you so

much for being with us