NEW YORK (AP) — Police officers in helmets streamed into Columbia University Wednesday evening to remove a group of mask-clad protesters who staged a Pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the school's main library.
Videos shared on social media show a long line of NYPD officers entering the library hours after dozens of protesters pushed their way past campus security officers, raced into the building and then hung Palestinian flags and other banners on bookshelves in an ornate reading room. Some protesters also appear to have scrawled “Columbia will burn” across framed pictures.
Other videos show campus security officers barring another group of protesters from entering the library, with both sides shoving to try and force the other group aside.
Police said at least 80 people had been taken into custody, though it wasn't clear how many came from the demonstration inside the library and how many were outside the building.
Videos shared by a reporter on the scene show more than 30 people being taken away from the library by officers with their hands tied behind their backs. Protesters and other supporters, meanwhile, gather around the metal barriers set up outside the building by police cheering on the detained demonstrators and chanting “Free Palestine.”
The university's acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then requested the NYPD come in “to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,” she said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Shipman said two university public safety officers sustained injuries as protesters forced their way into the building.
“These actions are outrageous,” she said, adding that the disruption came as students were studying and preparing for final exams.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, subsequently said officers were entering the campus “to remove individuals who are trespassing.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also denounced the protesters.
“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest,” the Democrat wrote on X. “But violence, vandalism or destruction of property are completely unacceptable.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that they are examining visa status for “trespassers and vandals” who took over the library.
“Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation,” he wrote.
The Trump administration has cracked down on international students and scholars at several American universities who had participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations or criticized Israel over its military action in Gaza. Columbia University scholar Mahmoud Khalil, for example, is a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record who was detained in March over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Wednesday's demonstration and the effort to break it up came the same evening that the U.S. Justice Department announced it had brought hate-crime charges against a man who had been repeatedly arrested at pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past year, including one held near Columbia. An indictment charged Tarek Bazrouk, 20, with assaulting Jewish people at the demonstrations.
Columbia University in March announced sweeping policy changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding.
Among them are a ban on students wearing masks to conceal their identities and a rule that those protesting on campus must present their identification when asked. The school also said it had hired new public safety officers empowered to make arrests on campus.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian student group, said it had occupied part of Butler Library because it believed the university profited from “imperialist violence.”
“Repression breeds resistance — if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus," the group wrote online.
The federal charges against Bazrouk say he kicked a person in the stomach at a protest near the New York Stock Exchange, stole an Israeli flag and punched someone in the face at a demonstration near Columbia, and punched someone wearing an Israeli flag at another Manhattan protest in January.
Bazrouk's lawyer, Andrew Dalack, said his attorneys “look forward to zealously defending” him.
A magistrate judge said Wednesday that Bazrouk could be released on bail, but that ruling is being challenged by prosecutors. A hearing is scheduled before a federal judge on Tuesday.
FILE - A New York City police officer keeps watch on the campus of Columbia University in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
