How the showdown at Columbia University between protesters and NYPD unfolded
The first sign that the weekslong standoff at Columbia University was nearing a dramatic finale came after dusk, when New York City police officers clad in riot gear began massing south of the east gate of the venerable Ivy League school.
The first sign that the weekslong standoff at Columbia University was nearing a dramatic finale came after dusk, when New York City police officers clad in riot gear began massing south of the east gate of the venerable Ivy League school.
It was around 9 p.m. Tuesday and the pro-Palestinian protesters standing in front of the wrought-iron gate could see the police gathering, and they were defiant.
“We will not move. We will not bend,” they chanted. “The occupation has to end.”
The protests had erupted April 17 when students — demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and insisting that Columbia divest from corporations that could be profiting from the war — set up 50 tents on campus and refused to leave. The police cleared them out the next day, but the protesters returned.
This time, the NYPD was back at the request of school administrators after a group of protesters had taken over Hamilton Hall, an on-campus building beside the gate at Amsterdam Avenue and 116th Street.
Rating: 5