According to a New York police spokesperson, the 133 people detained have since been released. One of the police officials, Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, https://twitter.com/NYPDDaughtry/status/1782593393773650285 the letter sent by NYU that prompted police intervention.
According to the letter addressed to the police by the university and now released by the police, it states that NYU “repeatedly asked all individuals” to leave Gould Plaza, a square in New York where several colleges are located.
The students, in turn, engaged in “disorderly, disruptive and hostile” behavior that interfered “with the safety of our community.” NYU considered that, by ignoring orders to disperse, the individuals “are trespassers” and asked the police to close the area and “take measures” to remove the protesters.
Protesters at NYU called on the institution to disclose and dispose of donations from “weapons manufacturers and companies with an interest in the Israeli occupation”, says the BBC.“If they refuse to leave, we ask the New York Police Department to take the necessary coercive measures, including arrest,” the New York university added in the letter published by the police.
Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry explains that authorities responded to the request and “dispersed the crowd” in that square, making several arrests “as necessary”.
“There is a pattern of behavior that is occurring in several campus of our country in which individuals try to occupy spaces and challenge university policies”, concludes the deputy commissioner, adding that, In New York, police “stand ready to address these prohibited and illegal actions” whenever called to intervene.
There are several North American colleges where academic normality is being interrupted by student protests demanding an end to the war in the Middle East and warning about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
Last week, around a hundred students from Columbia University, also in New York, were detained. Also on that occasion, police intervention was requested.
In the days that followed, students counter-protested with large camps set up on the university’s lawns. Several protesters outside the university attacked the campus.
To calm tempers, Columbia University announced this Monday that it will allow students to attend the last classes of the semester remotely. “Safety is our top priority,” said the university’s president, Angela Olinto, in the same email in which she announced the hybrid teaching system.
On Monday, one of Columbia University’s biggest donors and owner of the Patriots football club, Robert Kraft, https://twitter.com/StandUp2JewHate/status/1782388392438686076 “until corrective measures are adopted”.
According to the newspaper The New York TimesO The fuse of these protests reached other institutions, including Yale, Minnesota, California, Berkeley and Emerson University.in Boston, where protest camps also emerged.
In recent weeks, several personalities have warned of the danger of this type of protests, considering that they are fueling hatred and anti-Semitism in the university context. At the White House, President Joe Biden warned this Monday of “harassment and calls for violence against Jews” at universities.
“This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous, and has no place on college campuses or anywhere in our country,” said the President of the United States.
