New York police enter Columbia University building and arrest students

Dozens of NYPD officers in riot gear entered the Columbia University campus on Tuesday night to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters, after issuing a dispersal order to protesters gathered in front of one of the university’s entrances.

Columbia University has been the epicenter, but protests have been roiling universities across the country, and administrations have taken different approaches to the student camps that have sprung up in support of the Palestinian cause.

The officers headed toward the camps at the Ivy League school, Students were taken off campus with their hands tied behind their backs.

Police entered Hamilton Hall, the building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters, after issuing a dispersal order to protesters gathered in front of one of the university’s entrances.

CNN watched as dozens of people were arrested at Columbia University on Tuesday night after New York Police Department officers entered the campus.

The detainees were zip-tied and escorted to buses.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have protested the thousands of civilians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas and are demanding that universities divest from companies linked to Israel, more than six months after that country’s war with Hamas began.

Officers moved toward encampments at the Ivy League school, led students off campus with their hands tied behind their backs, and entered a building occupied by protesters.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded for weeks that Universities divest from companies linked to Israel, more than six months after that country’s war with Hamas.

Columbia officials asked police to enter the campus, university spokesman Ben Chang said in a news release Tuesday night. “After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and locked, we were left with no choice,” the statement said.

News footage showed police officers wearing bulletproof vests and riot shields entering the building through a window, which they accessed using a specialized police van with a roof-mounted ramp. Some agents entered with weapons in their hands.

Columbia University has asked the NYPD to maintain a presence on campus until at least May 17two days after the start of classes at the school, “to maintain order and ensure that the camps are not reestablished,” according to a letter sent by the president of the university, Minouche Shafik, to the NYPD, cited by CNN.

Keep reading:

– Pro-Palestinian students arrested in protests at Florida universities are brought to court
– “It is absolute anarchy”: the shocking images of the student takeover of a Columbia University building
– Pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israeli groups have more clashes at UCLA