Almost half of protesters arrested were not affiliated with Columbia, City College: Adams
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NEW YORK (PIX11) — Almost half of the nearly 300 people arrested at college protests on Tuesday were unaffiliated with Columbia University or City College, according to Mayor Eric Adams.
More than 40% — roughly 130 — of those detained at the New York City campuses Tuesday night were not tied to the schools, according to a source close to the investigation. But the breakdown is much lower for Columbia, specifically, with just 29% of those arrested being unaffiliated with the school, the source said.
“It appears as though over 40 percent of those who participated in Columbia and CUNY were not from the school and they were outsiders,” Adams said Thursday in an NPR interview.
It was unclear if the unaffiliated arrests were considered “outside agitators.”
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During an appearance on the PIX11 Morning News Thursday, Adams did not clarify how many “outside agitators” were at the protests. He said that the universities were given the names of those arrested to determine who was a student and who wasn’t.
“We don’t want to release student names,” Adams said. “It’s up to the institutions to do that.”
Of the roughly 280 arrests at both campuses, about 170 were given summonses, and the remaining got either Desk Appearance Tickets or have yet to be processed, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“We will look carefully at each individual case on our docket and make decisions based on the facts and the law. That will include a thorough review of body cam footage and interviews with witnesses,” Bragg said in a statement.
The NYPD was expected to reveal how many “outside agitators” were at the Columbia University and City College protests but has not yet released the information, as of early Thursday.
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the New York City area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
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