Column: If something wicked this way comes, it's likely an irksome relative with a mugshot

Once again, all roads lead to Palm Beach, whether or not we like the something wicked that this way comes.

Case in point: James Carlson, also known as Cody Carlson or Cody Tarlow, whom New York police described as one of the most violent leaders of the Columbia University anti-Israel riots and, according to a police source quoted by the New York Post, “a longtime anarchist."

A "professional agitator," he is. Really. That's his job.

Agitation, apparently, pays well.

Carlson, who uses his mother's maiden name as one of his aliases, is the owner of a multimillion-dollar three-story townhouse in Brooklyn's tony Park Slope, with four wood-burning fireplaces and a carriage house.

He's also one of three children of prominent advertising execs the late Richard “Dick” Tarlow and his first wife, Sandy Carlson Tarlow, who divided their time between their apartment in Manhattan, their summer home on Shelter Island, and their Midtown oceanfront condo in Palm Beach.

After Sandy died, Dick married the much younger Kristin Kehrberg.

When contacted by a New York Post reporter, the agitator's sister said that nobody in the family talks to, or has anything to do with, her brother.

And no wonder.

For the violence at Columbia ― an institution to which he has zero connection ― he was charged with burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, conspiracy and criminal trespassing after a police officer reported "doors with shattered windows, doors off hinges, broken desks and exits blockaded by piled-up chairs.”

While still in police custody, Carlson destroyed a camera inside a holding cell.

How Bronx-y of him.

After Dick Tarlow died in 2022, he left an estate worth well over $20 million and his young widow began dating rocker John Mellencamp.

So, there's that.

Heard: That Rudy Giuliani's birthday gift registry on Amazon included a 55-inch television, a fancy German electric razor, Giorgio Armani cologne, and, oddly, stain-blocking ceiling paint. Why???

Seen: Andrea Stark and her eye-popping Stark Carpets tabletop at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House spring fundraiser.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Professional agitator at Columbia riots has Palm Beach connections