NYPD Columbia attack criticized by some progressives

The New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) wide-ranging operation at Columbia University on Tuesday night was met with fierce criticism from many progressive lawmakers, who pressured authorities to calm the situation.

Hundreds of police officers stormed a campus building Tuesday as they tried to regain control of a Columbia University building that had been seized by pro-Palestinian protesters more than 20 hours earlier.

“If any children are hurt tonight, the responsibility will fall on the mayor and university presidents,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) he wrote on social media platform

“Other leaders and schools have found a safe, de-escalation path. This is the opposite of leadership and endangers public safety. A nightmare in the making,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “I ask the mayor to reverse course.”

The New York Democrat later published a CNN report on the NYPD operation, which quoted a reporter as saying, “I’ve covered a lot of this kind of thing around the world, and I’ve never seen so many police officers moving into one area.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) again published a declaration by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who responded to the same footage.

“If this were to happen in Russia or Iran – a police force of this size mobilized against students protesting the state’s war policies – it would be universally denounced as an evil tyranny,” says Greenwald’s post, shared by Omar.

“The problem for the protesters is that they chose the only issue that could provoke a police force of this type,” he added.

The criticism comes as demonstrations against the war in Gaza have spread across campuses in recent weeks. On Columbia’s campus, protesters escalated the situation by taking control of the Columbia building, Hamilton Hall, breaking windows and unfurling an Intifada flag in the process.

The move prompted Columbia President Minouche Shafik to send a letter to senior NYPD officials on Tuesday, requesting that police remove protesters from the occupied building and a nearby encampment “with the greatest regret.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) also offered his harshest criticism of Tuesday’s protests.

“Breaking windows with hammers and taking control of a university building is not free speech,” he said Tuesday on the Senate floor. And those who did this should immediately face consequences that are not just a slap in the face.”

“Campuses cannot be places of learning, discussion and debate when protests turn into criminality and those who commit such acts do nothing to convince others that their cause is just,” he added.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story