On Tuesday night, the NYPD arrested nearly 300 pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the campuses of Columbia University and City College of New York. Ahead of the police sweep, Mayor Eric Adams warned students to leave, claiming that the protests had been hijacked by “outside agitators.” On Wednesday morning, Adams and law-enforcement officials extended this line of argument, defending the department’s tactics as a necessary response to chaos perpetuated by external actors.
“There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I’m not going to wait until it’s done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it,” Adams said at a press conference. “This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children, and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the City of New York.”
In news appearances, NYPD officials cited the use of heavy bike chains to secure the doors of Hamilton Hall as evidence of the professional nature of the protests. “This is not what students bring to school. This is what professionals bring to campuses and universities,” Deputy Commissioner of Communication Tarik Sheppard said during an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday. But social-media users unearthed old posts from Columbia University’s public-safety department that recommended the Kryptonite bike locks in question to students who biked and even offered a discount for purchasing them.
Authorities also misidentified protesters or blurred their roles. Adams cited one woman, Nahla Al-Arian, whose husband he claimed was “convicted of terrorism.” But Al-Arian wasn’t on Columbia’s campus this week, and she told the AP that Adams had misstated her husband’s legal past. Another woman, Lisa Fithian, a longtime activist who has made appearances at Occupy Wall Street and many other protests, was seen instructing protestors on how to barricade a door outside Hamilton Hall the night it was first occupied. But Fithian, whom the NYPD describes as a “confirmed professional agitator,” told the New York Times that she wasn’t on campus Tuesday evening when the arrests were made.
Reporters questioned Sheppard further about the claim following Wednesday’s press conference. He said the NYPD did arrest nonstudents Tuesday evening but did not elaborate on the numbers or whom they were associated with.
On Thursday, the NYPD claimed that almost half of those arrested at Columbia and CUNY were not affiliated with the schools, though more specifics were not forthcoming.
Those taken into custody face a variety of potential charges, including trespass, criminal mischief, and burglary. Columbia University president Nemat Shafik requested that the NYPD maintain a presence on campus through May 17, two days after commencement, in her letter asking for police intervention.
Adams cited what he saw as a change in strategy, noting “destruction of property” and “disruptions of cameras” as proof of outside involvement. But the mayor said that any further information will be released on the department’s timeline owing to the sensitive nature of the investigation.
“Let me be very clear: This is an ongoing, evolving investigation. The intelligence division must be extremely sensitive about information they release,” Adams said. “Our goal is not to ensure you get a good story. Our goal is to make sure that we tell the right story.”
The term outside agitator is notably fraught: It was frequently deployed by authorities to undermine civil-rights protests in the 1960s. And in 2020, New York’s then-police commissioner Dermot Shea used the term to justify harsh police crackdowns on social-justice demonstrators in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
