≧40–50 #students, their hands cuffed w/plastic zip-ties, were seen being loaded into #NYPD vans & buses outside #ButlerLibrary as officers swept through 6 six-story bldg to round up other #protesters who refused to leave.
#Police arrived on campus in force at the request of #Columbia ofcls who said the student demonstrators occupying the library's 2nd-floor main reading room were engaged in trespassing.
#law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly #Palestinians #Israel #Gaza #war
Videos & photos on social media showed #protesters, most wearing masks [given the givens, wouldn’t you?], standing on tables, beating drums & unfurling banners saying "Strike For Gaza" & "Liberated Zone" beneath the chandeliers of the Lawrence A. Wein Reading Room.
#Trump had lashed out at #Columbia over pro-#Palestinian #protests on campus last year, saying they were *#antisemitic* & showed a failure to protect Jewish students.
#law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly #Israel #Gaza
#Student #protesters, including many #Jewish organizers, counter that #Trump & *conservative* politicians who are strongly pro-#Israel are unfairly conflating pro-#Palestinian #protests & #antisemitism. [yup]
#Columbia's board of trustees has been *negotiating* w/the Trump admin, which announced in March that it had canceled hundreds of millions in #grants to the #university for #scientific #research.
#law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly #Palestinians #Israel #Gaza #war
The #university has said it has worked to combat #antisemitism & other #prejudice on its campus while seeking to fend off accusations from #CivilRights groups that it was giving in to #Trump government intrusions on #AcademicFreedom.
#Columbia #University said late on Wed that it had requested #NYPD assistance "in securing the building," & that 2 of its public safety ofcls were hurt in the standoff.
#law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly #Palestinians #Israel #Gaza #war
An #NYPD spox confirmed "multiple arrests" of #protesters who occupied the library but did not provide an exact number.
Before police arrived, #Columbia #University public safety personnel were seen locking the front doors to the library, preventing any more #students from entering the building & sparking a brief episode of pushing & shoving outside.
One student appeared to have been injured in the fracas. Another individual was seen being carried out of the bldg on a stretcher.
With further entry to the library barred, a growing crowd of #demonstrators outside the building moved to the streets just beyond the campus gates.
One #student org representing the #protesters said on social media that school security had assaulted demonstrators & acknowledged that some activists had refused to show their IDs to ofcls.
#democracy #dissent #law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly #RightToProtest #ColumbiaUniversity #Palestinians #Israel #Gaza #war
#Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a collection of #student groups, recirculated long-standing demands on social media on Wednesday for the #university to no longer invest its $14.8B #endowment in #weapons makers & other companies that support #Israel's #military #occupation of #Palestinian territories.
On Monday, pro-Palestinian #protesters occupied a University of #Washington bldg, demanding the school cut ties w/ #Boeing over its contracts w/the #IDF.
The #university said 34 #protesters were #arrested, & charges of trespassing, property destruction & disorderly conduct were referred to prosecutors.
On Wed, it said the 21 #students who were among those arrested have been #suspended & #banned from all of the school's campuses.
#Columbia was at the forefront of a pro-#Palestinian & anti-war student #protest movement that swept across US campuses last year over #Israel's war in #Gaza, which began in 2023.
#Trump, a [purely self-interested] #Republican, is also trying to #deport some pro-Palestinian #international #students at #US #schools, saying their presence could *harm* US #ForeignPolicy interests [utter crap].
The #protesters in the library also demanded the release of #MahmoudKhalil, a #Palestinian activist & #Columbia graduate student who remains in a Louisiana immigrant #jail after he was among the first to be #arrested for #deportation.
how much is #netanyahu paying trump?
