Columbia journalism students recall NYPD raid
STORY: It was the second time in as many weeks that the administration had called on police to control the protests over Israel's war in Gaza. Students have been suspended, and threatened with expulsion. Police are now stationed around-the-clock on campus.
"The police were aggressive," said investigative journalism student Oishika Neogi. "There was a point at which we were standing at the sundial on campus and everywhere we looked, we could see police marching in. And it was just a very eerie, surreal... moment where just everywhere you looked, there's police. I don't think there were as many students inside on campus as there were police."
Adversaries of pro-Palestinian protesters accuse them of antisemitism, a claim Columbia student protesters and their faculty advocates strongly deny.
Pro-Palestinian protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israel have spread across U.S. universities in the two weeks since Columbia administrators called in police to dismantle the encampment.
"You saw people being dragged backwards with their hands tied behind their backs," said investigative journalism student Nandhini Srinivasan, referring to April 18, when over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Columbia after university president Minouche Shafik asked New York police to clear the encampment. "Some of them still had masks. A lot of them, quite a few of them, didn't even have the time to tell legal observers their names and you could see people next to me screaming, 'Tell us your name! Tell us your name, because you're going with the NYPD. We need to be able to get you out.' There were times when they wouldn't even have a chance to tell their names. It was just a very intense experience."
