What We Know So Far: Hundreds of Police Raid Columbia University, Arresting Protesters Occupying Campus Building

campus on Wednesday after the occupation of a college facility by student protestors who supported Palestine. To disperse pro-Palestine demonstrators who had taken over the famous Hamilton Hall, a university landmark with a long history of student activism, the police broke into the Columbia University campus. This happened when university administrators threatened to kick out the anti-Israel demonstrators if they didn’t leave the building and stop occupying it. The cops took many protestors into custody.

A few hours after demonstrators had taken control of a university facility, arrests were made. Overnight, the demonstrators on Columbia University’s main campus attacked and took over a building, Hamilton Hall, while raising a Palestinian flag.

Officers broke through a second-floor window to gain entry inside Hamilton Hall, where they escorted protestors wearing zip-ties onto nearby law enforcement buses. The university said in a statement that there was “no choice” but to call the police to the campus for the second time in less than two weeks since the building had been “vandalized and blockaded.”

The New York Times reports that the student demonstrators were removed off Columbia University’s campus one by one by NYPD (New York Police Department) officers, who then bound their hands behind their backs using zip ties. According to the NYT, students were heard screaming “Free, free Palestine” as they left.

According to the report, a large number of police officers are still present on campus, particularly at Hamilton Hall’s door.

Just after 9 p.m. (local time) on Tuesday, NYPD officers arrived at Columbia University and started breaking up the campsite. On Monday, protesters raised a large Palestinian flag in lieu of the US flag at Hamilton Hall, which was entered via a window by special police teams using a large truck and a ramp.

The majority of the demonstrations were concentrated at Columbia University, when at least 200 students blocked the entrance to Hamilton Hall.

One of the structures that saw student demonstrations in 1968 against institutional machinery endorsing US engagement in the Vietnam War was Hamilton Hall.

Notably, the university has reportedly requested that the NYPD stay on campus until at least May 17, which is two days after the planned graduation, according to NBC News.

The Columbia campsite has served as the center of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, and earlier this week, students there chose to reject the order to leave.

The decision to suspend students at Columbia University comes amid a surge of tensions and arrests at American institutions, sparked by pro-Palestinian protests that attracted attention and sometimes resulted in police involvement.

While the recent arrests have received a lot of attention, since Hamas’ October attack on Israel, which left over 1,200 people dead and numerous hostages, colleges across the US have been managing student protests using law enforcement tactics in addition to academic sanctions like suspensions and, in some cases, expulsion.