NYPD Head Slams AOC For Her Criticism of the Police at Columbia

When pro-Hamas antisemitic students refused to leave their tent encampments on the Columbia campus, after repeatedly being implored to do so by the Columbia administrators, the NYPD was called in to remove them, and did so with dispatch and determined efficiency. The police never lost their cool, despite being repeatedly cursed by those students who tried to resist, kicking and screaming, being picked up and moved off-campus to waiting police wagons. Most observers were deeply impressed with the calm of the police officers that was quite a contrast to the hysteria exhibited by the students (and by some non-student protesters, mostly Muslim Arabs, who had decided to take part in the anti-Israel fun). Not everyone was impressed, however. The former mixologist and present Congresswoman and Squadroon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was outraged at the behavior of the police. And the head of the NYPD decided to answer her back. More on this contretemps, with the NYPD chief showing his mettle more attractive, can be found here: “Top NYPD cop schools AOC after she rants about Columbia campus chaos and ‘violent’ police units,” by Olivia Land, New York Post, April 25, 2024:

A top NYPD official schooled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and slammed Columbia University’s “entitled” demonstrators after the congresswoman railed against the school’s decision to call in cops amid ongoing campus chaos.

“Not only did Columbia make the horrific decision to mobilize NYPD on their own students, but the units called in have some of the most violent reputations on the force,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote late Wednesday in response to a video of NYPD Counterterrorism officers outside the Morningside Heights campus.

“NYPD had promised the city they wouldn’t deploy SRG to protests. So why are these counterterror units here?” she asked.

But NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell was having none of the left-wing Democrat’s critique, and wrote in a reply, “Columbia decided to hold its students accountable to the laws of the school.”…

The protesters have missed several deadlines to evacuate the space — including a midnight Wednesday cutoff that under-pressure officials extended by 48 hours.

The NYPD also arrested more than 100 demonstrators at NYU on Monday night — and shocking video showed Assistant Chief James McCarthy and his officers surrounded as they went into a building after cuffing one of the protesters.

“F–k you! F–k you, pigs,” the crowd could be heard shouting at police as they [the protesters] descended on the scene.

NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy and a few officers were chased by protestors after they made a single arrest at NYU. McCarthy and his men tried to get inside the NYU Catholic Center, but couldn’t open the door. They eventually found an unlocked door around the corner. Security guards had to hold the doors closed as students tried but failed to push their way in. And once inside, McCarthy called for backup. The students, meanwhile, alternated cries of “Shame” with “Free Palestine.” And they continued to do so until that backup unit arrived, and started to make more arrests, at which point the crowd dissipated.

After many attempts to persuade the students to leave peacefully, all of which were rejected, the administration at Columbia called in the NYPD to remove them forcibly. This was two days after the NYPD had arrested more than 100 demonstrators at NYU, who had taken over a campus building; the Columbia students spewed obscenities at the police when they arrived, and continued in that vein as they resisted being picked up and taken in police wagons to local stations to be booked.

At Columbia, the administration had repeatedly set deadlines for the students — at least three — all of which were ignored by the students. Their presence — that tent encampment — smack in the middle of the campus had disrupted university life, with noise of their chanting making it hard to be heard inside lecture halls, classrooms, and libraries. Entry into some buildings was blocked by the protesters. Jewish students, fearing the worst, did not dare to cross the campus to get to classes or to their dorm rooms. Many have now followed the advice of Columbia’s rabbi and left their dorms in order to live at home, as commuting students.

AOC was outraged by the NYPD being called in by Columbia to remove protesters after days of warning went unheeded. And she particularly objected to police belonging to anti-terror units being among those sent to Columbia. What did she expect the Columbia administrators to do — simply turn over the campus to the protesters who continued to spew forth their anti-Israel and antisemitic venom, calling for the eradication of the Jewish state and its replacement by a 23rd Arab one, and cheering on the terrorists of Hamas for what they did on October 7? Should that have been allowed to go on for weeks? At what point would AOC think calling in the NYPD was justified? After a Jewish student was pummeled by a crowd into a bloody mess? In fact, there have been physical threats to Jewish students on the Columbia campus, many of whom now say they are afraid to appear on the campus because of the demonstrators. There have been a few cases of Jewish students being attacked, though so far without any serious injuries being reported. Does that “horrify” you just as much as the police from the anti-terror unit, AOC?