Anti-Israel protester arrested at Columbia, CUNY raids declared Oct. 7 Hamas attack one of the ‘greatest days of my life’

Rudy Ralph Martinez, 32, was among the 282 protesters and agitators who were cuffed and hauled away when the NYPD encountered unruly mobs during a crackdown on tent encampments at both schools late Tuesday.
Rudy Ralph Martinez, 32, was among the 282 protesters and agitators who were cuffed and hauled away when the NYPD encountered unruly mobs during a crackdown on tent encampments at both schools late Tuesday.

An anti-Israel protestor busted during the Columbia University and City College campus unrest once declared that the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack was one of the “greatest days of my life,” police sources told The Post — as details on other arrestees’ violent pasts continued to emerge Thursday.

Rudy Ralph Martinez, 32, was among the 282 protesters and agitators who were cuffed and hauled away when the NYPD encountered unruly mobs during a crackdown on tent encampments at both schools late Tuesday.

Martinez, who was nabbed at CUNY’s Harlem campus on a burglary charge, is a serial protester on the anti-Israel front, according to law enforcement sources.

Rudy Ralph Martinez was arrested at CUNY’s Harlem campus on Tuesday,
Rudy Ralph Martinez was arrested at CUNY’s Harlem campus on Tuesday,
He once declared that the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack was one of the “greatest days of my life.”
He once declared that the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack was one of the “greatest days of my life.”

He was captured on camera praising Hamas during a New York City protest in December, video circulating on social media shows.

“One of the greatest days of my life,” a smirking Martinez said as he described the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“Long live the resistance,” he added, according to the clip.

Martinez, who cops believe may be currently employed at CUNY after recently graduating from there, has an “extensive history” of protest-related arrests to his name that date back to California in 2012, sources said.

James Carlson, 40, who was cuffed at the Ivy League campus on a burglary charge, is a “long-time figure in the anarchist world” and antigovernmental “extremist circles,” sources said. William Farrington
James Carlson, 40, who was cuffed at the Ivy League campus on a burglary charge, is a “long-time figure in the anarchist world” and antigovernmental “extremist circles,” sources said. William Farrington

In the Big Apple alone, Martinez’s rap sheet includes a slew of arrests for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstruction and refusal to disperse, according to the sources.

He wasn’t the only serial protester.

One of the agitators busted inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall has a lengthy track record of protest-related violence — including an incident that allegedly left a cop severely injured nearly a decade ago.

  • Not affiliated with school: 13

  • Students at affiliated institutions: 6

  • Undergrad students: 14

  • Grad students: 9

  • Columbia employees: 2

James Carlson, 40, who was cuffed at the Ivy League campus on a burglary charge, is a “long-time figure in the anarchist world” and antigovernmental “extremist circles,” sources said.

He was slapped with a string of charges, including suspicion of attempted lynching and aggravated assault on a police officer, over a violent political protest in San Francisco in 2005 that left a cop with a serious head injury, NYPD sources said.

In that incident, Carlson was accused of trying to set a patrol car on fire before he and others allegedly set upon the officer. The outcome of the charges in that case wasn’t immediately known.

Carlson has a lengthy track record of protest-related violence, sources said.
Carlson has a lengthy track record of protest-related violence, sources said.

More recently, Carlson — who also goes by the alias Cody — was charged with burning a Jewish protester’s Israeli flag outside Columbia University on April 21, prosecutors said.

During that ordeal, cops said a perp took the 22-year-old victim’s flag, another tossed a rock at the victim and a third aggressor lit the flag on fire.

Police charged Carlson on Wednesday with criminal mischief, criminal possession of stolen property and arson stemming from that incident. Cops are still hunting the two other suspects.

Carlson was released on his own recognizance at his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment Thursday and is due back before a judge on June 20.

He was also involved in protests in January that blocked off entrances to the Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, sources said.

Another demonstrator arrested at CUNY, Jacob Isaac Gabriel, 27, also has a slew of protest-related arrests to his name.

Gabriel often shows up to Big Apple protests clad in Black Bloc gear — a tactic used to by protesters to shield their identity with ski masks or helmets, police sources said.

More than 40% of the protesters arrested during the on-campus unrest weren’t actually students, sources said. John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock
More than 40% of the protesters arrested during the on-campus unrest weren’t actually students, sources said. John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

He was also allegedly among the hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters who stormed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the sources said.

His rap sheet includes recent charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, refusal to move, offenses against public administrators, fighting and trespassing, according to sources.

The new details emerged as police sources revealed more than 40% of the protesters arrested during the on-campus unrest weren’t actually students — a day after Mayor Eric Adams warned that “outside agitators” were radicalizing youngsters.

Of the 282 protesters hauled away during the massive NYPD operation, 134 of them had zero affiliation with either school, according to NYPD sources.

“A preliminary review of the numbers, just the beginning process of analyzing, but it appears, though, that over 40% of those who participated in Columbia and CUNY were not from the school and they were outsiders,” Adams told NPR of the numbers.