A man with a knife slashes 2 people at a Tokyo subway station and is
arrested
[May 08, 2025]
NEW YORK (AP) — Police officers in helmets streamed into
Columbia University Wednesday evening to remove a group of mask-clad
protesters who staged a Pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the
school's main library.
Videos shared on social media show a long line of NYPD officers entering
the library hours after dozens of protesters pushed their way past
campus security officers, raced into the building and then hung
Palestinian flags and other banners on bookshelves in an ornate reading
room. Some protesters also appear to have scrawled “Columbia will burn”
across framed pictures.
Other videos show campus security officers barring another group of
protesters from entering the library, with both sides shoving to try and
force the other group aside.
Police said at least 80 people had been taken into custody, though it
wasn't clear how many came from the demonstration inside the library and
how many were outside the building.
Videos shared by a reporter on the scene show more than 30 people being
taken away from the library by officers with their hands tied behind
their backs. Protesters and other supporters, meanwhile, gather around
the metal barriers set up outside the building by police cheering on the
detained demonstrators and chanting “Free Palestine.”
The university's acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters
who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to
show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then
requested the NYPD come in “to assist in securing the building and the
safety of our community,” she said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Shipman said two university public safety officers sustained injuries as
protesters forced their way into the building.
“These actions are outrageous,” she said, adding that the disruption
came as students were studying and preparing for final exams.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, subsequently said officers
were entering the campus “to remove individuals who are trespassing.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also denounced the protesters.
“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest,” the Democrat wrote on X.
“But violence, vandalism or destruction of property are completely
unacceptable.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that they are examining
visa status for “trespassers and vandals” who took over the library.
“Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation,” he wrote.
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A New York City police officer keeps watch on the campus of Columbia
University in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig,
File)
The Trump administration has cracked down on international students
and scholars at several American universities who had participated
in pro-Palestinian demonstrations or criticized Israel over its
military action in Gaza. Columbia University scholar Mahmoud Khalil,
for example, is a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record who
was detained in March over his participation in pro-Palestinian
demonstrations.
Wednesday's demonstration and the effort to break it up came the
same evening that the U.S. Justice Department announced it had
brought hate-crime charges against a man who had been repeatedly
arrested at pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past year,
including one held near Columbia. An indictment charged Tarek
Bazrouk, 20, with assaulting Jewish people at the demonstrations.
Columbia University in March announced sweeping policy changes
related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke
its federal funding.
Among them are a ban on students wearing masks to conceal their
identities and a rule that those protesting on campus must present
their identification when asked. The school also said it had hired
new public safety officers empowered to make arrests on campus.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian student
group, said it had occupied part of Butler Library because it
believed the university profited from “imperialist violence.”
“Repression breeds resistance — if Columbia escalates repression,
the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus,"
the group wrote online.
The federal charges against Bazrouk say he kicked a person in the
stomach at a protest near the New York Stock Exchange, stole an
Israeli flag and punched someone in the face at a demonstration near
Columbia, and punched someone wearing an Israeli flag at another
Manhattan protest in January.
Bazrouk's lawyer, Andrew Dalack, said his attorneys “look forward to
zealously defending” him.
A magistrate judge said Wednesday that Bazrouk could be released on
bail, but that ruling is being challenged by prosecutors. A hearing
is scheduled before a federal judge on Tuesday.
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