New York mayor responds to Columbia University chaos

New York mayor responds to Columbia University chaos

that happens in a city of this capacity and magnitude and you have to be a well organized professional operation to deal with all of those encounters and I just want to thank commissioner caban of the chief of Department Mader Chief shell uh commissioner Dy first Deputy Commissioner and Cella and the entire operation and and specifically I just really want to thank uh commissioner Wier she was the one that was monitoring the situation when I first started seeing the protest uh take place in the city it just did not fit right uh I saw similar indicators from the black lives matters March of when it was uh brought to my attention that there were those who came to the city to disrupt our city and she was able through her team was able to conduct an inves tigation and what I feared was actually materialized and actualized by those who were on the ground and I know that there those who are attempting to say well the majority of people may have been students you don’t have to be the majority to influence and Co-op and operation that is what this about and so if we want to play the RO police uh you could do so I’m want to play the New York City Police where we’re going to protect our city from those who are attempting to do what is happening globally 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 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 May of the city of New York so the men and women of the New York City Police Department you should be proud of yourself at the reest W of Columbia University uh after speaking with them uh throughout the week at their request and their acknowledgement that outside agitators were on their grounds training and really co-opt in this movement at their request we went in and conducted an operation to allow Columbia University to remove those who have turned the peaceful protest into a place where anti-Semitism and anti-israel attitudes were pervasive approximately 300 people were arrested at Colombia and City College we approximately the arrest to distinguish between who were actual students and who were not supposed to be on the ground and we pointed out yesterday uh these external actors with a history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos not to PE peacefully protest but create chaos if you were at city college and you saw the bottles of the garbage cans the other items that were thrown at police officers those police officers showed the great level of discipline to not allow this to evolve to an out of control situation as we pointed out yesterday they are tempting to disrupt our city and we are not going to permit it to happen and we’re proud to say they have been removed from the campus the nypd’s Precision policing ensure that the operation was organized calm and that there were no injuries or violent clashes and to be clear this is not our analysis of what took place last night National independent journalist acknowledge what the police department did yesterday and they were on ground to see it and I want to be clear that we will continue to continue to use this level of professionalism and we saw the intersectionality of all the things we have been working on drones allowed us to do a complete analysis of the Hamilton building and of the location we were able to know how to precisely go in and conduct the operation making sure the encryption of our radios because they were not able to Monitor and hear our deployment tactics it allowed us to have the element of surprise that we went on the ground um training with our CRT team Precision knowing how to go in and conduct a professional operation we didn’t wake up and executed a plan this is a plan that has been put in place since January 2022 when we understood our Police Department had to be prepared for uncertainties like this and so the request we received in writing could not have been clearer but those who broke into the building did include students it was led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university they needed the school needed the nypd’s assistance to clear Hamilton Hall and the encampments outside a dual operation on the grounds that took place successfully clearing the tents taking back and reclaiming Hamilton Hamilton Hall and we said from the beginning that students have a right to protest and free speech is the Cornerstone of our society but as our major concern we knew and we saw that there were those who were never concerned about Free Speech they were concerned about chaos it was about external actors hijacking peaceful protests and influence students to escalate there’s nothing peaceful about barricading building destroying property or dism dismantle in security cameras we cannot allow what should be a lawful protest to turn into a violent spectacle that saves and serves no purpose as as I said there’s no place for acts of hate in our city we made that clear that’s from anti-Semitism to islamophobia to anti- seism and other communities as our aapi community we have been consistent there’s no place for hate in this city and I want to continue to commend the professionalism of the police department and to thank Columbia University was a tough decision we understood that but with the very clear evidence of their observation and the clear evidence from our Intelligence Division that they understood it was time to move and the action had to end and we brought it to a peaceful conclusion and we’re going to continue to coordinate with Colombia as we have been from the start start and all of our uh academic institutions to find a peaceful middle of allowing our young people to protest without violence we support the right of free speech and open debate we always protect the right to protest but we must balance the right with keeping students the school and our city safe and it is a combined effort that we’re going to continue to move in the right direction to accomplish this this this goal we know that this is only a comma in the full sentence of public protection and in the city uh this is not a celebratory U moment uh we should never had had to have to get here in the first place we can’t create environments while children could be in danger and we must push back on all attempts to radicalize our young people in this city like we’re seeing across the entire Globe commissioner thank you for job well done and turn it over to you at this time good morning and thank you may Adams so yesterday the NYPD written notification from both Columbia University and the City College of New York the situation on their campuses had deteriorated to a point where the safety of their students faculty staff and the public was at risk so last night at both schools requests the nyp enter the campuses and remove protesters who refused to leave the area approximately 300 arrests were made with preliminary charges range from TR pass to criminal mischief to burglary at this point we’re going to let the criminal justice system play out but as we said last night the universities worked for weeks to negotiate with the protesters to resolve the situation and to restore order on their campuses but once it became clear that Public Safety was a real concern especially after the protest has escalated the situation by breaking and entering into a University Building the NYPD was called in to do their job I just want to say to the men and women of this department thank you since the terrorist attack of October 7th the NYPD has responded to more than 2,400 protests and demonstrations across this city about 1,100 those were related to the situation Israel and Palestine and at everyone we’ve worked to keep Pro is safe and protect their first amendment rights at the same time we work to keep our residents and Workforce safe to make sure our neighborhoods have full access to emergency services and to keep life moving in the largest city in the nation this is an easy work but no one does it better than the men and women of the NYPD lastly I want to thank the officials Columbia University and City College for their effort efforts through developing situation their continuous and open communication with everyone involved from the protesters to their students and staff to F officials including the police department was all about public safety and at the end of the day that’s what we’re focused on our job is to keep people in our city safe and the NYPD is ready do their job anywhere and anytime we’re called upon they try to lock us out but the NYPD and the people of the city of New York will never be locked out and we will always work together to keep our city safe take few questions uh um commissioner and Mr Mayor I wonder if you could tell us how many of the people were arrested both inside Hamilton Hall and outside were um not affiliated not students were outside agitators both inside and outside and I have a second question thank you I’ll pass that question over to our chief Patrol John so right now as it breaks down we have 282 arrests as of right now we have 282 arrests 173 those came from City College 109 came from Columbia how it breaks down to your question will have that answer sometime today we haven’t broken a down yet but we will have that answer can you give us any more details about the the people who were not affiliated with them were they were they um what groups they were associated with good morning um so there are a number of different individuals who we know from over the years associated with protests not just in our city um but in other cities as well who are um linked to too and who we see doing training around the change in tactics that we described yesterday and that we all witnessed the Black Block attire the breaking Windows breaking doors the vandalism property destruction the barricading makeshift weapons that we um recovered in the encampment and so that change in tactics combined with the presence of known individuals on campus uh in the leadup to what happened in Hamilton Hall is why we had a real elevated concern around Public Safety ktie H one moment and you know um uh Mara you know we know that the terminology of out agitators were used during the Civil Rights Movement and people uh attempted to uh show that the movement was not legitimate so we understand that but this Police Department cannot beot on what’s the political correct terminology we have to be caught up on Public Safety there were individuals on the campus should not have been there there were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training we saw a shift in tactics that were being used and when you start using the intelligence that intel was able to supply we knew it was time to communicate directly with the school and say you have more than a peaceful protest on your hand yeah and uh Mr Mayor if I could just add to that just as the the letter said that we received from Colombia the this was led by outside agitators and this was also stated in the letter that we received when Columbia asks us to move in all right um I think we have a video that we want to show you before we take some more questions so the video back [Music] [Laughter] he [Music] [Music] you have been warned as [Music] before we uh before we continue with questions commissioner shepher will just give a quick overview saw and then we’ll continue with the questions yeah the reason why we just showed that video is that a lot of arrests made almost 300 arrests made last night and what you see is the overwhelming majority of those arrests that were made were made without uh incident no injuries no real scuffles with police it was just an amazing job again and kudos to uh Chief AR Ramis and his team srg and um and ESU and obviously commissioner Dorry leading and chief shell leading CRT last night so make no mistake about it this is a very difficult operation but we made it look like that that it wasn’t problematic and the reason was the skill of the cops that were out there last night a lot of these people uh would have resisted but the way that these officers talked to them handled them and and and took them into custody it was uh very professional and the overwhelming majority’s arrest uh just led to a quick arrest with no incident and and then right down to mapsy where they were processed and another significant part of the video was at the end that’s our flag folks go take over our buildings and put another flag up that may be fine to to other people but it’s not to me my uncle died defending this country and these men and women put their lives on the line and it’s despicable that schools will allow another country flag to fly in our country so blame me for being proud to be an American and I thank commissioner DY for putting that flag back up we’re not surrendering our way of life to anyone Katy h could you I wanted to just double back on the the outside Nar outside agitators I know you said you’ve identified some people why is it so difficult for the NYPD to say x amount of people were outside agitators especially since you’ve identified them the mayor’s been talking about them for more than a week and secondly um you know blocking reporters from covering the events then outside especially the use of what seem to be use of force from the police is that part of the nypd’s attempt to control the narrative which I know some of the people in the DAT have talked about before but I guess first with the outside agitators why is it so difficult to just say 10 people 20 people especially if you as you say they were leading the occupation of the building yeah so you know I think it’s it’s not difficult to say that we know certain individuals that are well known to us um who have been involved in what we assess to be training especially around a change in tactics um you know we’re in the process of sorting through all of the data that we were covered last night so sifting through the names of everybody and were they affiliated with the school or not um that takes time and we want to make sure that we’re giving you accurate information but I think the larger point is really important which is this is not about students expressing ideas it is about a change in tactics that presents a concern and a normalization and mainstreaming of rhetoric and I’m not just talking about language I’m now talking about tactics and that’s what shifted our response yesterday but a normalization and mainstreaming of rhetoric associated with terrorism that has now become pretty common on college campuses right you see um people wearing headbands associated with foreign terrorist organizations this happened in October when you had a viral Tick Tock reissuing of Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter to America um so that’s a larger concern it’s separate from what happened yesterday but they’re related we do not want ideas we do not want campuses which are where people are supposed to be learning and being in a conducive environment for for all of the things that we do in schools um being turned into places where people are committing vandalism property damage and committing crimes but if you know who the leaders are you said yesterday at a press conference it would be repeated on National Television why three four five people the mayor said last week that he questioned why all the attempts were the same when they aren’t I just it’s question about thatat been a prevalent message being shared by the city hall so can you offer us any more into it Beyond just aot that they sold to students let me let me um let me be very clear this is an an ongoing evolving investigation the Intelligence Division must be extremely sensitive about information they release our goal is not to ensure you get a good story our goal is to make sure that we tell the right story there are people that we have been watching in organizations that are not part of the campus we’ve been very clear there are individuals and organizations that are not students we see in a shift in tactics that are being used destruction of property destructions of cameras and so so many other things we saw paraphernalia and pamphlets about disruptions there’s a series of things that the intelligent division has brought to make that determination that there’s an influence going on right now now we know that people rather us putting a night neat little bow but that is not the way law enforcement operate and we’re not going to release any information that is too sensitive to release at this time we know there outside individuals that have been influencing of this issue and K the second the second part of your question when it comes to the Press so just take you back through yesterday we released two messages to the Press right before this operation was taking place that if you a member of the press and you wanted to get some access and get some shots to come and meet a dcpi representative on 114 Street and then we’ll work it out with you from there the reason why we have our own cameras in inside of is because we have police officers they have tactical gear they have helmets they have vests and we don’t know what to expect when we go through these doors so we cannot just take the press and go hitting doors with es ESU it doesn’t work like that when we were very transparent and we also shared our video with members of the media this morning it’s available from dcpi now to continue sharing all right and uh uh commissioner let me just add on to that when we and uh caros you can you can you can CH chime in if you want but when we took action on NYU we receive nyu’s letter that they wanted to declare their encampment when I tell you the i i i p my own personal uh opinion is that the Press kind of got in the way of our operation there was hundreds of views getting in the way of officers as they were trying to make arrest okay well I’m saying it was more than it was more than 50 and and I got we got video to prove that so thank thank you commissioner Shepherd for uh you know uh uh you know getting the Press together so we can know who where the Press is that and that we don’t confuse them with the uh students or protesters thank you thanks um so my question is twofold I want to know about the individuals who are in training who made these makeshift weapons who have the pamphlets and all that is that one certain group would you call this a new breed of homegrown terrorists that we should be worried about here in New York City if you’re tracking them Across America and then my second question is about that impressive tactic of going into the building on that bear cat that was dramatic and impressive to was there something about the timing of when you did that can you paint a picture of what was going inside what you could see on the drones um with those makeshift weapons was violence emminent and did you think at that point you have to go in yeah no I mean I think it’s really important to very um in a nuanced way describe what we’re seeing and I wouldn’t describe it as a new breed of homegrown terrorism there is though a concern around radicalization as the mayor and the police commissioner have conveyed I think very effectively um this is a time when if you have and you know to to your point about being more specific last week there was the wife of somebody who had been convicted um for material support to terrorism on campus and we have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on her part um but that’s not somebody who I would want necessarily influencing my child if I were a parent of somebody at Colombia or the individual who are involved in doing some of this training and tactical awareness activity um these students don’t come in the doors knowing how to barricade themselves behind barriers that they’ve created right these are all skills that are taught and learned and that presents uh a problem and so you know this is not about policing ideas in any way shape or form it is about recognizing when there is an actual Public Safety concern and we mentioned this yesterday but it’s worth reiterating to the protesters themselves if you’re barricaded in a building and an emergency happens there’s a risk to you um so it’s specific and we have to be calibrated but we also have to be um open and honest about what we’re seeing and we’re seeing a trajectory that concerns us oh yeah so some images um of stuff that was recovered and you know there was um the image on the bottom left was pretty widespread distribution in the initial weeks after uh October 7th and when we saw a lot of big numbers of individuals in protests which is just a map of locations that were focused on for protest activity imagery on the top right um suggesting fomenting chaos and squatting as a tactic which we’ve seen in protests previously um some zip ties and some what we would call a very rudimentary makeshift weapon and you know I think the the reason for all of the protective gear that you saw last night and I don’t want to speak for my colle colleagues who um specialize in this is to protect officers when you’re going into a situation that you don’t fully understand what might greet you on the other side of the door um so this is important and it is not just a New York City issue it’s obviously not just a Colombia issue we saw it spread to ccny last night but this is unfolding across the country and in um Europe as well so this is a challenge we’re all going to be dealing with for some time so good morning everyone so what it took took carefully planning uh especially with the chief of Department chief Mader and also all the executive boards uh Chief members that uh in our department uh to plan this uh this tactics to enter this building so as we saw there was a several areas where there was it was barricaded by several items such as vending machines uh chairs tables and so on and as we enter it was very difficult for us to get in and push our way through because they were throwing objects at us so it was very difficult so the the amount that it took us we went pretty quickly but it was uh we tactically uh had every team around the building to enter that building so they was carefully planning on this topic we just go Tik Tok of some of the plan the response was enormous maybe sort of how that played out at what point decide to for this and how that together and I and I’ll speak to that thank you uh for just you know bringing that question the light we really didn’t plan for this remember Hamilton Hall was was uh just taken over recently fairly recently and we didn’t get any requests from Colombia matter of fact I did a press conference around 11 o’clock yesterday we did not have a request so when I arrived when I finally got to the office yesterday and we realized we had a request we had to put a plan together fast all right but this is what we’re do we’re the best police department in the world for a reason cuz we do have the ability to adapt sit down you know we brought all the thought leaders in the room chief of Special Operations Division chief of emergency service unit the chief of Patrol chief of Tren chief of housing I had them all in the room cuz they have years and years hundreds of years of experience in the room and we had to figure out how we were going to deal with what was going on in the street which was the first part of the plan cuz we had to be able to move we have we had to be able to bring the Bearcat in all right we had to make sure we were had a a clear passage for the for the buses once we uh had arrested individuals on the buses there was a lot that went into it then we had to deal with the encampment and then we had to deal with the building and we had to make sure we kept them separate so the decision was made that chief control would leave lead the lead the strategy on the on the ground to deal with the encampment while the chief of Special Operations Division and the chief of ESU would deal with the building all that equipment you see is lifes saving equipment all right it’s not equipment to uh go out and hurt and attack people that is life saving equipment when we have to save someone that’s the equipment that we use in this case we had to breach a building a very difficult building a building that we knew doors were uh uh fortified with Vending machines couches metal chairs and the the the the students and the people who were in the building were also pushing against the building and throwing uh uh objects at ESU as they made entry all right um for the first time in many years we use uh distraction devices something we haven’t used in years the only person in the department who’s authorized to allow that is me and before we sat down I told the members of the issue try not to use them but if we’re under attack and we have to do this not only to keep them safe but to keep the students safe we made a decision to use them and that’s what we did and even prior to going to Colombia we had to call we had to Pivot because uh City College got got uh a violent and we had to send some of the resources from the from Columbia to help deal with City College come back down to Colombia and then go back to City College that we were we didn’t plan for that all right but this is this is this Department’s ability to move and pivot as needed to keep people safe and that’s what we did yesterday yeah I just want to add one more thing to that we also had to secure five dorms of over 2,000 students to make sure they were safe and we didn’t give them the option to come out of the dorm for just that reason so there was 2,000 additional kids on that campus that we secured they didn’t come out and that’s that’s what added to the level of safety and success we had in this plan okay we’re going to take uh two more questions questions Tina Mo New York Post hi commissioner rer to go back to the uh wife of the Man convicted on terror charges was she advising them training them can you give us a little bit more on on what she was doing there so we her presence was last week it was you know before what we saw over the last um couple of days and you know we haven’t been in the encampment so we don’t have a lot of fidelity on exactly and it isn’t just her there was a ton of people coming on to the campus and Columbia University to described in their letter that the college had become a magnet for people from the outside and again this isn’t just something we’re hearing from Colombia it’s something that other universities have told us as well and they know their student population better than anybody um we know the people we know they know their community and so this is something we are all seeing independently is external folks and does this inherently mean that you’re going to see the kind of escalatory tactics that we saw yesterday it may or may not but when we do see them we understand that there’s a risk all right this will be our final question Aaron kki thanks car thanks guys for doing this um I wondered maybe for the commissioner the mayor if you you could just say a little bit about U prior to the authorization letter arriving what your conversations with Colombia were like uh that that led up to it and then what information you were sharing and and what they were telling you and then also just your expectations on presence going forward how many officers remain on campus it seems like you’re authorized to be there through commencement what’s your expectation about what you’re going to have to do in the next couple of weeks the commissioner could talk about his conversations uh but we have been having ongoing conversations with all of our universities once we picked up uh from our intelligence uh that there was a real desire to start taking over buildings and a desire to uh escalate what was happening already and uh we spoke with the institutions and told them we’re here when you need us uh we’re going to uh pivot quickly uh and I think it was clear from the com the combination of what intel was able to share and the observations that the schools were making that the decision was made as uh Chief uh M stated this was a last minute call when we did our press conference we did not receive a letter at that time but I think the escalation of taking over uh the Hamilton building of people saw the information that that the intel was was supplying but we have been in regular contact with the school leadership not only the president uh but uh part of their operation uh uh management and we communicated with them shared information with them as we got it we shared it with them so we knew the balance of not going in without being invited unless there was imminent threat we knew that balance and I know the commissioner can share his conversations also with the leadership yeah pretty much much the same conversations about students right to protest peacefully and obviously keeping every student faculty and staff safe at the schools and I’ll turn it over to Chief Department who can talk about what we’re going to do going forward as far as presen at the schools yep right after this we’re going to go out we’re going to do a assessment of the campus we’re going to make sure we speak with the campus officials and then we’re going to make a determination what kind of resources that we’re going to put there our resources are there to support the university uh staff the public safety on campus the teachers um The Faculty members on campus just to make sure that the environment is safe so that’s that’s what our goal is going forward we’re going to see how we can assist them uh make a determination how many officers that will be that will be needed to do that so that the campus The Faculty Public Safety the teachers the leadership that can function and get through commencement the campus is SEC as is secure as we speak and we’ll do a reassessment Like Chief mie just mentioned thank you everyone thank you everyone for your time and attention Katie Katie for

New York Mayor Eric Adams holds a press conference after New York City police on Tuesday (April 30) arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed up in a building at Columbia University and removed a protest encampment that the Ivy League school had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/05/01/columbia-protests-latest-news-police-arrests-gaza-israel/

#newyork #protest #palestine

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