Columbia University is in a state of utter chaos Tuesday, with access restricted and press barred after pro-Palestine protesters besieged and occupied a building on campus in an ugly, violent turn of events.
According to those inside the campus, the students who had participated in the nearly two-week long encampment stormed Hamilton Hall near the corner of 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Between 60 to 100 protesters apparently barged into the building just after midnight Tuesday — taking hammers to windows, smashing glass, ripping down barricades near the doors, and blocking the entrances.
Insiders also report that the invaders began breaking furniture and using it to lock themselves in.
Based on information obtained from the site, including video, law enforcement agents believe the siege was instigated by outside agitators who, as Mayor Eric Adams described during a Tuesday evening briefing, are “actively coopting a peaceful gathering.”
“They’re here to create discord and dissonance,” Adams said during the presser at One Police Plaza. “That’s why I’m urging every student and every protester to walk away from this situation now, and continue your advocacy by other means.”
And yet, as of 6 p.m. April 30, Columbia University did not request police intervention on campus.
The siege began after Columbia University administrators announced earlier that afternoon that they had begun suspending students for failing to disperse for a 2 p.m. deadline. The exact reason which motivated the invasion of Hamilton Hall was not yet known.
With the building completely occupied, protesters wearing masks and keffiyehs unfurled a gigantic banner from the top window reading “Free Palestine.”
CUAD (Columbia University Apartheid Divest), one of the groups participating in the protests at Columbia, said on X (formerly Twitter) the building had been “reclaimed” by an “autonomous” group and renamed for Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old girl said to have…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply