At Columbia University, police cleared an occupied academic building on Tuesday night, with officers entering Hamilton Hall through a second-story window by means of a ladder truck. Protesters had broken in and occupied the building earlier in the day, smashing windows in the process.
New York’s City College also issued a statement on the events on their campus, saying the arrests there came after repeated acts of violence and vandalism. The college says all campus operations will be online from May 1st until further notice.
Over in California, police are at UCLA after clashes broke out between rival camps—namely pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wrote on X that the violence unfolding at UCLA is absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable.
The Biden administration is also taking a tougher tone as college protests escalate, with the White House now calling the takeover of the Columbia campus building “absolutely wrong.” That’s as former President Donald Trump has compared the college protests to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach.
In just New York City alone, police have made around 300 arrests so far, with NBC reporting that more than 230 people were arrested at Columbia this morning.
NTD spoke to Gerard Filitti, a civil and human rights attorney and senior counsel at The Lawfare Project, for his analysis.
