NYPD arrests over 100 protesters at NYU, clears out anti-Israel encampment on campus
The NYPD arrested more than 100 protesters at New York University, including students and faculty, on Monday night and cleared out a campus encampment set up earlier by anti-Israel demonstrators.
Cops in riot gear cuffed the protesters — who are demanding NYU divest from holdings tied to Israel over the ongoing violence in Gaza — with zip ties and led them to police buses, the university’s student-run newspaper Washington Square News reported.
NYU faculty members linked arms and stood side by side to form a human barrier between a swarm of cops and student protesters, according to a video shared by a City reporter. The professors were the first to be arrested.
Moments earlier, police blasted a message over a megaphone, ordering the group to disperse or face arrest for trespassing, according to the newspaper.
Once the cops moved in, they also tore down tents that students erected Monday morning as part of a “Gaza Solidarity” encampment at the private university’s Gould Plaza on West 4th Street.
Earlier in the day, NYU’s director of campus safety informed protesters that they would “face consequences” if they did not leave the encampment by 4 p.m., WSN reported.
The directive came after metal barriers that were set up at Gould Plaza to prevent the protest from growing in size reportedly were breached.
“With the breach of the barricades early this afternoon, that requirement was violated, and we witnessed disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing behavior that has interfered with the safety and security of our community,” campus safety head Fountain Walker said to the crowd at the encampment, according to the college paper. “If you leave now, no one will face any consequences for today’s actions — no discipline, no police.”
But the number of people supporting the protest only grew larger as anti-Israel activists from outside the college community showed up.
“This development dramatically changed the situation,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement, noting that protesters with no affiliation with the university breached the barriers. “We witnessed disorderly, disruptive, and antagonizing behavior that has interfered with the safety and security of our community, and that demonstrated how quickly a demonstration can get out of control or people can get hurt.”
NYU then requested that police officers respond to the campus, according to Beckman and the NYPD.
The university spokesperson said that multiple “antisemitic incidents” were reported during the protest, without providing specifics.
“We also learned that there were intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents reported,” Beckman said. “Given the foregoing and the safety issues raised by the breach, we asked for assistance from the NYPD. The police urged those on the plaza to leave peacefully, but ultimately made a number of arrests.”
Cops with the department’s Strategic Response Group stormed the protest around 8:30 p.m. and began making arrests and taking down all the tents, according to WSN.
Many of the protesters appeared to be praying at the time the cops swooped in, according to witnesses at the scene.
The NYPD said in an announcement via megaphone that the students, faculty members and other protesters were being arrested for “disorderly conduct.”
As cops loaded the arrestees onto waiting transport buses, protesters who had gathered outside the barricaded campus plaza moved to the streets to block the vehicles from leaving, according to videos shared on social media. This prompted officers to make more arrests and the buses eventually left.
Police sources said more than 100 people were taken into custody.
An officer pepper-sprayed protesters — and a legal observer directly in the face — during an arrest in at least one instance, according to footage posted online and WSN.
Some of the remaining protesters who were able to evade arrest marched downtown from the NYU campus toward NYPD headquarters, according to social media reports and video.
They were met by a large group at 1 Police Plaza who were there to support the arrested protesters.
The crowd lit off flares — lighting the sky with a red glow and smoke — and waved Palestinian flags while repeating chants in support of Gazans dying under Israel’s retaliatory bombardment.
They also directed chants of “Go home, losers” at cops stationed outside police headquarters.
NYU was just one of several elite universities across the county where students protesting Israel had set up encampments.
Most notably, a tent city at Columbia University was removed by police last week — but another one popped soon after.
