Pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with police at City College of New York on Tuesday night, as cops cleared the quad and took dozens into custody.
The mass arrests just before midnight followed an announcement the Harlem college would shift to online classes “until further notice,” as the campus continued to be roiled by a pro-Gaza encampment drawing students and faculty from across the City University of New York.
NYPD loaded protesters into busses on Amsterdam and 139 St through the main gate, where only hours earlier, videos showed protesters shooting several flares in anticipation of the sweep.
Students being taken away in zip ties continued to chant: “Free, free Palestine.”
The Tuesday night unrest at CCNY was unfolding just as NYPD officers in riot gear stormed the Columbia University campus, where demonstrators had taken control of the school’s main administration building.
A day earlier, student protesters disrupted a CUNY Board of Trustees financial committee meeting to read their demands. They were subsequently removed by campus security, a clip on social media shows.
CUNY students had demanded Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez meet with them personally about their demands to divest from Israel and for amnesty for those facing student discipline from pro-Palestinian protests.
“We’re done negotiating. If we don’t see Chancellor Rodriguez here by Monday, we are absolutely done with the civil conversations at the table,” one of the protesters said in the video.
In a memo sent out to protesters obtained by the Daily News, the college warned students the encampment “has to be dismantled by the beginning of classes on Wednesday.”
The notification offered a to-be-determined alternate location for campus protests that follow university policies, advising that “if that occurs, CUNY and City College will not pursue disciplinary or legal action.”
The memo claims that protesters on the campus have “tried to falsely present themselves as City College students” and that a flare gun was shot off twice from the encampment Sunday, with one of the flares landing and sparking a fire on a science building.
Encampments popped up at City College last week as protests erupted across colleges and universities around the nation.
The student protesters at the campus have demanded divestment from Israel, a ban on partnerships and trips to the Middle Eastern country, reversal of disciplinary actions tied to pro-Palestinian activism and the removal of police from campus.
The call to move classes online came just over a week after a similar decision at Columbia University, which had protesters occupying its campus since early April.
Students at Columbia, which also saw mass arrests during protests Tuesday night, have voiced concern about safety and antisemitic rhetoric on the campus.
