The New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) sweeping operation at Columbia University late Tuesday was met with fierce criticism from many progressive lawmakers, who pushed officials to deescalate the situation.
Hundreds of police officers stormed a campus building Tuesday, as they sought to regain control of a building that had been seized by pro-Palestinian protestors more than 20 hours earlier.
“I am outraged by the level of police presence called upon nonviolent student protestors on Columbia and CCNY’s campuses. As an educator who has first hand experience with the over-policing of our schools, this is personal to me,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) wrote on X on Tuesday, adding, “The militarization of college campuses, extensive police presence, and arrest of hundreds of students are in direct opposition to the role of education as a cornerstone of our democracy.”
“I call upon the Columbia administration to stop this dangerous escalation before it leads to further harm, and allow the faculty back onto campus so that all parties can collectively come to a solution that centers humanity over hate,” Bowman said.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) on Wednesday responded on X to footage of the NYPD arresting protesters, and wrote, “The continued repression and violence against anti-war student activists and their allies by Columbia University, NYPD, and Mayor Adams is abhorrent and barbarous.”
“The nationwide crackdown on protesters must end,” Bush added.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) issued a similar call for deescalation earlier that evening.
“If any kid is hurt tonight, responsibility will fall on the mayor and univ presidents,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on the social platform X, responding to Mayor Eric Adams’s (D) warning ahead of the police raid for students to vacate the building “before the situation escalates.”
“Other leaders and schools have found a safe, de-escalatory path. This is the opposite of leadership and endangers public safety. A nightmare in the making,” she continued. “I urge the Mayor to reverse course.”
The New York Democrat later reposted a CNN report of the NYPD operation, which quoted a reporter saying, “I’ve covered lots of this sort of stuff around the world, and I’ve never seen this many police moving into one area.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) reposted a statement from journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was responding to the same footage.
“If this were in Russia or Iran — a police force of this size deployed against students protesting the state’s war policies — it’d be universally denounced as evil tyranny,” Greenwald’s post, shared by Omar, reads.
“The problem for the protesters is they chose the one issue that could provoke police force of this kind,” he added.
Demonstrations against the war in Gaza have spread across campuses in recent weeks. On Columbia’s campus, protesters escalated the situation by seizing control of Hamilton Hall, smashing windows and unfurling an intifada banner in the process.
The move prompted Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, to send a letter to senior NYPD officials Tuesday, requesting police remove protesters from the occupied building and a nearby tent encampment “with the utmost regret.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued his harshest criticism yet of the protests Tuesday.
“Smashing windows with hammers and taking over a university building is not free speech,” he said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “It is lawlessness. And those who did it should promptly face the consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist.”
“Campuses cannot be places of learning and argument and discussion when protests veer into criminality, and those who commit such acts are doing nothing to convince others that their cause is just,” he added.
Updated at 10:36 a.m.