In the early hours of April 30, a group of pro-Palestinian organizers entered and occupied Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall after divestment negotiations with the administration failed.
Protesters inside the occupied Hamilton Hall renamed the building “Hind’s Hall,” barricaded doors and unfurled banners from windows, some reading “Intifada” and “Liberation Education.”
Over the next day, the protesters inside “Hind’s Hall” were seen only for brief moments. One appeared on the roof of the building, waving a large Palestinian flag to an outside crowd overlooking Amsterdam Avenue. Others would lean out the building’s windows to hoist supplies inside from a makeshift pulley attached to a crate. They hauled in Dunkin’ coffee, water, and barricades, preparing to stay as long as possible.
A cohort of student protesters kept watch outside the building’s two main entrances, sitting on the blankets where they had slept the night before. They blinked into the sun and chatted amongst themselves. Most didn’t move from their posts for hours.
The encampment on the lawn, which had been in a state of near-constant activity since it was erected almost two weeks ago, was now largely empty. A few masked protesters moved quietly around the encampment like ghosts, tidying supplies.
The building takeover last week marks the second time such an event has taken place in the school’s history. During the campus protests of 1968, which organizers explicitly invoked throughout their takeover of Hamilton Hall, the police arrived after three days. More than 700 students were arrested, and 148 of them reported injuries related to the arrests.
By late afternoon on April 30, police slowly gathered around campus without any word from the administration about their planned actions.
At 8:20 p.m., the university sent a shelter-in-place warning to all students. “Non-compliance may result in disciplinary action,” the email read. “Avoid the area until further notice.” Most students moved immediately inside their residential buildings. Others lingered, glimpsing police through the bars of the campus gates. An NYPD drone shone a spotlight down into their upturned faces.
Just after 9 p.m., more than 150 police in riot gear entered campus from a small gate at 114th Street.
Hundreds more officers waited outside.
As the police moved toward Hamilton Hall, the protesters who remained on campus stood by the occupied building. With their arms linked, those outside the building sang, “Love has brought us here, we shall not be moved.”
Inside the building, protesters braced their hands against the tables barricading the main entrance.
As the NYPD approached the hall, they ignored the protesters chanting behind them. They focused immediately on clearing the area, moving back the crowd of press, medics, legal observers, and the few student onlookers.
Members of both student and outside publications held up press badges and brandished cameras, myself among them. Police dismissed our demands to remain on the scene, but they continued to corral us backward. Some onlookers were moved into dormitories, and others were sent out a small side gate toward the street.
As I exited campus, moving slowly in hopes of being able to witness the interactions between protesters and police, an officer held their baton to my back and moved me out physically.
The police swept the area of almost all witnesses in just less than 20 minutes. No legal observers remained inside. Those of us who had been removed from campus were corralled on 114th Street, unable to leave for the next few hours.
In a recent editorial by The Columbia Spectator, editors vehemently condemned the lack of press freedom during the arrests.
Once the campus was cleared, the police returned to the protesters.
In the days after the arrests, details have slowly emerged about what happened after the media was cleared from the campus.
In an interview with Columbia student radio WKCR, an anonymous protester from inside Hamilton Hall recounted her experience.
“From the jump it was incredibly violent,” she said. She described the protesters as unarmed and said they did not resist arrest. She said the police immediately responded physically.
“They started to pull us apart with extreme force. Some were kicked on limbs, some were kicked in the chest, some were kicked in the face.”
The protester alleged that no one was read their Miranda rights. “That was a solid joke going around the bus [after the arrests], we were asking where Miranda was.”
In a video that circulated on social media immediately after the arrests, a student is shown being shoved by an NYPD officer down the steps in front of Hamilton Hall. Their body rolled down multiple steps until they crumpled at the bottom. That student remains unidentified.
More than 100 people were arrested from Columbia and charged with criminal trespassing, a Class B misdemeanor.
At the same time of the Columbia arrests, police were also sent a few blocks uptown to break up pro-Palestinian protests at City College of New York, arresting 173 protesters. Many were charged with burglary in the third degree, a Class D felony.
According to a City College adjunct faculty member who was arrested in connection to the protests and who remains anonymous for fear of retribution, the police arrived a full day before City College’s administration’s deadline for dispersal.
In a campus-wide email from the morning after the arrests, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik applauded the successful removal of the student protesters.
She wrote, “I thank the NYPD for their incredible professionalism and support.”
The following day, THE CITY reported that a gun had been discharged inside Hamilton Hall during the operation. An NYPD sergeant fired the bullet while they were clearing the building. The bullet struck a wall. The incident had not been previously acknowledged by Columbia’s administration or by the NYPD.
In an emergency press briefing by police on May 3, reporters asked Emergency Services Unit Chief Carlos Valdez why the gun incident was not mentioned in any of the prior briefings where the mayor praised the response. NYPD spokesperson Tarik Sheppard stepped in, responding, “We could have talked about it, I don’t recall it coming up organically.”
The NYPD does not plan to release the body camera footage of the incident, citing “NYPD protocol” to never release footage of accidental discharges.
A continued police presence on campus
On the night of the arrests, Shafik sent an email to the NYPD that leaked shortly afterwards. In it, Shafik requested police to remain on campus through May 17 to quell any potential new encampments or protests.
“We appreciate your commitment to assist us in a peaceful and respectful manner at this difficult time,” Shafik wrote. She also noted that the decision to call in the police, as well as the request for their continued presence, was supported by the university’s trustees.
Conversations have been ongoing as to the makeup of the protesters inside the building. The university administration initially claimed more than half of the occupiers were outside agitators.
After the arrests, the university released a daily breakdown of their responses since the beginning of the protests.
Two days after the arrests, Columbia released details of who had been inside Hamilton Hall. Columbia listed 13 non-affiliates, six students at affiliated institutions, 23 Columbia undergraduate and graduate students, and two Columbia employees.
Protesters inside the occupied building, however, contend that most of the “unaffiliated” protesters reported by Columbia are actually alumni of the university.
Columbia’s campus remains locked down
As of writing, campus access is only granted to students living in residential dorms, faculty members, and those few student journalists covering the events who must be checked off a list and escorted on campus by a faculty member.
As the end of the school year nears, campus is holding its breath.
The discrepancies between official reports of the arrests from the administration and the subsequent revelations have stoked longstanding tensions.
On May 6, Columbia announced the cancellation of its school-wide commencement ceremony, which was initially scheduled for May 15.
Over the lawn of the original encampment, Astroturf had already been laid in preparation for the event.
