NYPD brass on Tuesday blamed faculty and “professional agitators” at New York University for heated standoffs with police after university officials sent cops to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment and arrest 120 protesters — including students and staff — for trespassing.
The unrest at NYU over the war between Israel and Hamas was the latest in a string of mass arrests at colleges in the tri-state area that started last week at Columbia University and spread to Yale University in New Haven.
“The faculty were — from what I personally observed, and spoke to lieutenants and captains out there — the most aggressive towards the police,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York.” “They would not move, they would not let go.”
About 50 students protesting the war set up a tent demonstration early Monday morning on NYU’s Gould Plaza on W. Fourth St., outside the business school. An NYU spokesman said the school asked the NYPD to step in later in the day after the crowd became disorderly amid intimidating chants and antisemitic incidents.
As cops took down tents, some demonstrators were seen throwing objects at the officers. Police used pepper spray as some protesters attempted to block buses taking away those arrested.
The NYU campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine said in a Tuesday statement they were “met with violent arrests.” At least two reporters say they were pepper sprayed, including from the NYU student newspaper and local outlet HellGate.
As cops moved in to clear the encampment, up to 15 faculty members tied their hands together to form a chain around the demonstrators, NYPD officials said Tuesday.
Daughtry said the faculty were “physical with our officers as well” and it took “quite some time” to remove the profs before police could address the student protesters.
“I think parents have an expectation that when they send their kids to college, the faculty and their professors will be teaching and not protesting,” said Tarik Sheppard, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. “It was shocking to see the faculty out there.”
The two NYPD officials said that there were “professional agitators” in the crowd and speculated that someone was financing the protests, noting tents at the various campus protests have looked the same, though they did not elaborate. Many of the demonstrations have been organized by the group Students for Justice in Palestine, which has chapters throughout the country.
“Somebody is behind this and we are going to find out who it is,” Daughtry said.
Zach Samalin, 41, an English professor at NYU who was arrested Monday night for trespassing, protested at the encampment with his wife, who also teachers at the university, and their nearly 5-year-old daughter. He denied that faculty were trespassing or posed a threat to police.
“University security let faculty in up until minutes before they called police on us,” Samalin said during a Tuesday walkout in Washington Square Park. “So how the hell were we trespassing?
“I was linked arms with a 77-year-old man, who zip ties were put on so tight he couldn’t feel his hands by the time we got to central booking,” added the prof, who managed to hand off his child to his wife shortly before his arrest. “It seems to me like maybe the police were aggressive.”
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters, including students and faculty, participated in the Tuesday demonstration, chanting “free Palestine” and shouting that university president “Linda Mills is a liar.” Several said they observed tense confrontations with police, including the use of pepper spray and dragging a protester to the ground by the hair.
“The only acts of violence and brutality I witnessed were those of police,” said Dylan, a NYU student who declined to give his last name, who was inside Gould Plaza when police raided the student encampment Monday but managed to avoid arrest.
“If holding arms together and standing together in order to protect students against full-geared riot cops constitutes violence for the NYPD, I don’t know what definition of violence they’re using.”
NYPD said officers cleared out the encampment at the request of university officials.
“At this point we consider all protesters occupying Gould Plaza to be trespassers,” read a Monday memo from the university to the NYPD, “and we would like the NYPD to clear the area and to take action to remove the protestors. In the event they refuse to leave, we request the NYPD take enforcement action accordingly up to and including arrest.”
Of the 120 protesters taken into custody, 116 were given summonses for criminal trespass and four were given desk appearance tickets for resisting arrest, police said.
Like the Columbia demonstration, NYU students called on the university to divest from Israel and reverse all student and faculty disciplinary measures related to pro-Palestinian activism. Their demands include an end the institution’s partnership with Tel Aviv University and the shutdown of its Tel Aviv campus.
NYU closed access to the plaza and put barriers in place to contain the protest. But their efforts were unsuccessful. Spokesman John Beckman said more demonstrators later broke through the barricade, including many that NYU believes are not affiliated with the university.
“This development dramatically changed the situation,” he said in a statement. “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.
“We also learned that there were intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents reported,” he added.
The NYU campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors rebuked that characterization.
“At no point were non-NYU people knowingly allowed to join the Plaza encampment, and at no time was anyone on the Plaza either violent or antisemitic in speech or behavior. There was NO incitement at all,” they said in an open letter.
The university informed protesters that if they left by the late afternoon, no arrests would be made. Around 8:35 p.m., dozens of police officers in riot gear went on campus and started detaining students and faculty.
Workers on Tuesday bordered Gould Plaza with wooden planks. After clearing out the area, the NYPD kept cops there to prevent the protesters from returning, after hundreds of students at Columbia were able to taken over the lawns again following last week’s sweep.
Civil liberties groups condemned the university’s response and cops’ handling of protesters.
“Universities have been too quick to call in the NYPD to break up peaceful demonstrations,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of New York Civil Liberties Union. “New Yorkers should be able to voice their support for Palestine without fearing becoming a target of the NYPD or a victim of police abuse.”
Yale University on Monday called on the cops to clear a tent demonstration there, arresting 47 students in the process. A half mile away from NYU, about a dozen students at The New School erected a green-white-and-blue encampment over the weekend that as of Tuesday morning was not yet cleared.
“Despite threats of suspension,” The New School chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine wrote on Instagram, “we are still going strong.”
