Massive student protests in support of Palestine have continued across U.S. college campuses. According to CNN, New York Police Department Deputy Chief of Operations Kaz Daughtry said on the evening of the 26th local time that “outside agitators” were “trying to hijack a peaceful protest” at Columbia University.
“What may have started as a protest by a group of Columbia University students wanting to express their constitutional rights has now attracted a large number of outside agitators who are trying to hijack a peaceful protest and turn it into something more sinister.” Daughtry on the social platform X Posted in the article.
According to the report, Daughtry added that the NYPD has seen the same group of “professional protesters” protesting “at various demonstrations” every night, “and sometimes may change sides.” Daughtry believes these “outside agitators” continue to spread hatred and “anti-Semitism.” He said that as long as Columbia University’s president approves, the New York Police Department is ready to “address what happens on campus.”
This is not the first time that U.S. officials have accused “external instigators” of pro-Palestinian protests at universities. According to previous reports by the US “Capitol Hill”, on April 23, local time, Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests entered the sixth day. Hundreds of students slept on campus and police monitored them outside the campus gate. Eric Adams, the Democratic mayor of New York City, said at a press conference that day that the protests were mostly peaceful and he blamed “outside agitators” for disrupting the situation. “We cannot allow outside agitators to come in and disrupt the order,” Adams said, pledging more resources to help Columbia University quell protests.
Regarding the wave of large-scale pro-Palestinian protests taking place in many universities in the United States, according to media reports, as demonstrations swept through the most influential universities in the United States, the US police took quick action and arrested a large number of students participating in the protests. In the face of the students’ peaceful demands for a ceasefire in Gaza, some American politicians labeled the protesting students as “anti-Semitic.” However, many protesters and people said that opposing the “genocide” in Palestine is not equivalent to “anti-Semitism.”
On April 24, local time, Speaker Johnson of the U.S. House of Representatives came to Columbia University in New York (referred to as Columbia), where this wave of protests began. He warned that the National Guard would be dispatched (to deal with students). Texas Governor Abbott threatened to “put all protesters in jail.” In this regard, even the New York Times couldn’t help but ask: “Does the strict control of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on American college campuses mean the end of free speech?”
