NYPD Officers Clear Pro-Palestinian Encampments at NYU, the New School as Campus Protests Continue

People work near police officers, where students and pro-Palestinian supporters were removed after days of encampment, outside of New York University (NYU) campus in New York on May 3, 2024. Carlos Barria/Reuters

New York Police Department (NYPD) officers began clearing pro-Palestinian encampments at New York University (NYU) and The New School on Friday morning, in the latest crackdown on campus protests that have emerged across the country.

“[NYU] has requested our assistance to disperse the illegal encampment on their property. As per their request, we are on site and our officers will be assisting with the unparalleled professionalism embodied by our police officers,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry posted on X on Friday morning.

Shortly after announcing NYPD officers had begun clearing the NYU encampment, Mr. Daughtry announced the police department had received another request from The New School to clear unauthorized encampments on their campus as well. Mr. Daughtry said NYPD officers were on the scene and had begun the removal process.

The NYPD’s latest campus operations come after their officers cleared another campus occupation at Columbia University on Wednesday. For days the Columbia University administration had called on a pro-Palestinian encampment on their Morningside campus to disperse, but after a final deadline to leave, several of the activists instead broke into and barricaded themselves in one of the campus buildings, called Hamilton Hall. NYPD officers were then called in to extricate the activists.

One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia’s Hamilton Hall while clearing out protesters camped inside Tuesday, authorities said. No one was injured, the NYPD said Thursday. He was trying to use the flashlight attached to his gun at the time and instead fired a single round that struck a frame on the wall.

NYPD officers made 109 arrests at Columbia University as they cleared the campus occupation.

“There is some organization behind this movement,” Mr. Daughtry said on Friday morning, describing a “level of organization that we’re seeing, at both of these campuses here, and at Columbia.”

The NYPD deputy commissioner said officers have found leaflets and instructional guides on civil disobedience practices, as well as what activists should do when they are arrested.

“There is somebody funding this. There is somebody radicalizing our students,” Mr. Daughtry added. “And our deputy commissioner of counterterrorism intelligence will find out who it is.”

NYPD officers were also called to the City College of New York this week to clear out another pro-Palestinian encampment. This time officers arrested 173 activists involved.

Another pro-Palestinian encampment has emerged on the Fordham University campus in Manhattan, and NYPD officers have made some arrests there.

More Protests Across the US

Other pro-Palestinian protests have emerged at universities across the country, amid ongoing Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military operations in Gaza began after Hamas terrorists breached the Gaza–Israel barrier on Oct. 7, 2023, and proceeded to carry out attacks across southern Israel. Around 1,200 Israelis were killed and thousands more were injured in the course of the attacks. About 240 Israelis were taken hostage, about half of whom remain in Gaza.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry has reported at least 34,568 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory in the nearly seven months since the fighting began. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in its casualty assessments, and the numbers cannot be independently verified.

Several of the pro-Palestinian campus movements have called for their respective colleges to part from financial and business ties with Israeli entities.

Activists who took over Columbia’s Hamilton Hall in New York earlier this week listed the school’s divestment from Israel as one of their core demands.

The administration at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, has agreed to consider demands from pro-Palestinian protesters to divest from Israel as part of a deal to address protest events on its campus.

Portland State University (PSU) President Ann Cudd announced this week that PSU has agreed to “pause” its relationship with Boeing, in which the U.S. aerospace and defense technology firm had routinely made philanthropic gifts to the university. Pro-Palestinian campus activists had challenged the relationship between Boeing and PSU and called on the university to stop accepting money from the company.

Several universities have raised concerns about these protest events disrupting existing campus activities and events, and carrying on without authorization. Complaints have also emerged of harassment and assaults targeting Jewish and Israeli students and faculty amid the campus protests.

A pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus became the site of multiple large-scale brawls this week. The official UCLA student newspaper, Daily Bruin, reported dozens of pro-Israel counter-activists attempted to storm the pro-Palestinian encampment on Tuesday night. The UCLA student newspaper reported that counter-activists launched fireworks into the pro-Palestinian encampment while activists on both sides of the clash dispersed chemical irritants.

Los Angeles Times education reporter Teresa Watanabe also shared footage appearing to show a confrontation between a lone individual outside the pro-Palestinian barricade line and the counter-activists attempting to storm the encampment. In it, a counter-activists kicked the lone pro-Palestinian activist, before the two wrestled each other to the ground, and more counter-activists joined in, punching, kicking, and striking the pro-Palestinian individual with sticks.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers cleared out the pro-Palestinian UCLA encampment on Thursday morning. The California Highway Patrol reported more than 200 arrests were made as the encampment was cleared.

A tally by The Associated Press recorded at least 56 incidents of arrests at 43 different U.S. colleges or universities since April 18. There have been nearly 2,200 arrests stemming from these incidents.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

From NTD News