… Columbia University administrators called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) on Wednesday evening to violently suppress and shut down a pro-Palestinian student occupation of the campus’ Butler Library. Approximately 78 protesters were arrested just over a year after the police-state crackdown at Columbia last April, when the NYPD swarmed the campus to arrest over 100 students and break up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
On Wednesday afternoon, a group of around 100 anti-genocide student protesters took over Butler’s main reading room and renamed it the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” after the Palestinian activist and writer killed by Israeli forces in 2017.
The students’ demands include Columbia’s financial divestment from Zionist organizations, an academic boycott of complicit institutions, cops and ICE off campus and amnesty for all university members unfairly targeted and disciplined for pro-Palestinian actions.
Columbia’s Public Safety officers immediately responded and violently barred protesters from leaving unless they showed identification, which created a prolonged standoff…
If peaceful protest is going to be consistently met with violent police response; maybe they should stop being peaceful from the outset.
Taking over a university facility and making demands isn’t “peaceful.” Peaceful is sitting outside of University property and protesting.
Not to mention that the protesters are the ones that turned violent when faced with the police attempting to identify and arrest them lol. It’s like they forget that it’s all being recorded by multiple people lol
Lemmy doesn’t like to hear this, they are quickly turning into Reddit 2.0…
Taking over a building is on the far end of “peaceful”.
Yes? If a bunch of Trump supporters took over the same building, would you have the same attitude about it?
Ohhh, Mr. “gotcha question” showed up.
Feel free to complain that I didn’t answer your question like you deserve one
Okay.
If security shows up to stop protestors from leaving, they aren’t there to secure the peace, they are there to oppress.
Oh brother…