Adams warns ‘outside agitators’ descended on Columbia campus to radicalize students as over 100 arrested: ‘A global problem’
Mayor Eric Adams warned Wednesday that “outside agitators” had descended on Columbia University’s campus to radicalize students — as more than 100 pro-terror protesters were cuffed and hauled away by the NYPD overnight in a “massive operation.”
In total, 109 people were nabbed at the Ivy League campus after the NYPD responded to Columbia’s request to help oust a destructive mob that had illegally taken over the Hamilton Hall academic building late Tuesday, Adams and police said.
Cops are processing those arrests to “distinguish between who were actually students and who were not supposed to be on the grounds,” the mayor said at a news conference.
Hizzoner blamed the on-campus chaos on agitators who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully.
“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training,” Adams said.
“I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this about.
“This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York.”
Separately, 173 protesters were arrested during violent scenes at the City College of New York campus overnight, police said.
Preliminary charges from both Columbia and City College range from trespass, criminal mischief and burglary, according to cops.
Adams said the NYPD was brought in Tuesday night to quell the unrest at Columbia after the administration acknowledged “outside agitators were on their grounds training and really co-opting this movement.”
“We went in and conducted an operation to allow the university to remove those who have turned the peaceful protest into a place where antisemitism and anti-Israeli attitudes were based.”
It comes as the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment group called for protesters to rally outside 1 Police Plaza on Wednesday in support of the dozens of protesters who remain locked up.
Just moments after being cut loose, one of the protesters claimed to reporters that he and his fellow cellmates had been denied water and weren’t allowed to use the bathroom overnight.
“I really needed to pee the whole damn time,” Fernando Bobis, 42, said.
Bobis, a Columbia grad who practices medicine in Washington Heights, said he was among those arrested at City College after earlier protesting at the Ivy League campus.
“Five and 1/2 hours in a holding cell with no bathroom, no water, no food. I had a hard time checking my insulin to make sure I was okay. I’m Type 1 diabetic,” he said.