College protests live: Activists disrupt Michigan commencement as NYPD comes under fire for crackdown
President Joe Biden condemned protests that turned violent on college campuses on Thursday
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Students continued protesting the Israel-Hamas war on Saturday, with pro-Palestinian activists carrying flags and banners during the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony.
The action comes after the NYPD revealed on Friday morning that a police officer with the department’s Emergency Service Unit “unintentionally” fired his gun while trying to access a locked office at Columbia University on Tuesday night.
The bullet hit a wall inside the office. No one was injured.
On Thursday morning, hundreds of police officers dismantled a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California at Los Angeles and arrested more than 130 demonstrators.
Live TV footage showed protesters under arrest, kneeling on the ground, their hands bound behind their backs with zip ties. Loud explosions were heard during the clash from flash-bang charges, or stun grenades, fired by police.
President Joe Biden also denounced protests that turned violent on college campuses on Thursday.
NYPD says gunshot at Columbia was accidental discharge
The NYPD held a press conference to address an errant bullet that was fired while officers were trying to clear protesters off of Columbia University’s campus on Tuesday.
New York City’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, Tarik Sheppard, told reporters that the bullet was an accidental discharge and that the department averaged about eight accidental shots each year.
“Accidental discharges happen every single year and we average about eight a year and we don’t get request [for information] on it,” he said. “If you do ask about it, we’ll talk about it like we’re doing right now.”
The officer who fired the shot was said to be an 8-year veteran with an “impeccable” service record. The officer was reportedly trying to access a locked office to see if anyone was “hiding inside” and shifted his gun from his dominant hand to his off-hand. That’s when the errant shot fired. No one was injured in the shooting.
That officer will face department evaluation, according to the NYPD. The NY District Attorney’s office is also investigating.
Mr Sheppard said the department has no plans to release bodycam footage, citing department policy to withhold footage showing accidental shots that do not result.
The officer who fired the shot was a member of the Emergency Service Unit clearing protesters out of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall. The errant shot hit a door frame.
WATCH: Jewish Dartmouth professor says police threw her to the ground during Gaza protests and that New Hampshire governor is spreading misinformation
Annelise Orleck, a professor of history at Dartmouth University, said she was thrown to the ground by police during on Thursday night as law enforcement was cracking down on a Gaza protest at the campus.
Ms Orleck, who is Jewish, said New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is spreading misinformation by characterising the protests as antisemitic.
“My message is stop weaponizing antisemitism,” she told WMUR.
Mr Sununu called the protests “100 per cent” antisemitic during a press briefing on Wednesday, WMUR reports.
“One hundred percent, this is pure antisemitism,” Mr Sununu said. “This is pure hatred. It is. And again, they have a right to express that. I’m disgusted by it, frankly.”
Joe Biden said he planned to take executive action aimed at pushing back against a global crackdown on press freedom.
“In the coming weeks, I will be taking executive action in response to the global crackdown on press freedom, as exemplified by the wrongful detention of journalists around the world,” he said. “I will declare this crackdown on press freedom a grave threat to national security and will authorize measures, including sanctions and visa bans, against those who take abusive actions to silence the press.”
Reporters Without Borders maintains a global press freedom index, and said there was a troubling downward trend for journalistic liberty.
“RSF sees a worrying decline in support and respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure from the state or other political actors,” Anne Bocandé, RSF editorial director, told The Guardian. “States and other political forces are playing a decreasing role in protecting press freedom. This disempowerment sometimes goes hand in hand with more hostile actions that undermine the role of journalists, or even instrumentalise the media through campaigns of harassment or disinformation.”
Here are just a few examples of ongoing press freedom issues:
- In March 2023, Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal was arrested in Russia and charged with spying, an allegation both he and the US government strongly reject.
- Palestinian journalists who survived the opening days of Israel’s military actions in Gaza said they they face harassment and intimidation from Israel while doing their jobs, according to NBC News.
- In the US, Donald Trump, the leader of one of the Republican Party, has long called the press the “fake news,” the “enemy of the people,” “dishonest,” and “corrupt.
- Journalists in Turkey face arbitrary lawsuits, harassment, targeted financial pressure on critical journalists, and online censorship, the RSF reports.
Pro-Palestinian students protest Michigan graduation ceremony
Students protested the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, the latest manifestation of the wave of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war taking place across the country.
The group comprised about 75 people, and featured students wearing grad caps and kaffiyehs.
One demonstrator carried a banner reading, “No universities left in Gaza,” a refence to Israel’s destruction of every university in the Gaza Strip in the course of the ongoing conflict. Others held Palestinian flags.
Colleen Mastony, a university spokesperson, told The Associated Press that public safety personnel escorted the activists to the back of the stadium where the ceremony was taking place.
“Peaceful protests like this have taken place at U-M commencement ceremonies for decades,” she added.
No arrests took place, and the demonstration didn’t seriously delay the multi-hour ceremony.
ICYMI: UN human rights chief ‘troubled’ by treatment of Gaza protesters at US universities
UN human rights chief ‘troubled’ by treatment of Gaza protesters at US universities
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday (30 April) it was “troubled” by heavy-handed actions taken by US security forces during attempts to break up Gaza protests on college campuses. Demonstrations at universities across the country showed no sign of slowing as they spread coast-to-coast over the weekend and police crackdowns and arrests continued into another week. Students have vowed to stay in tent encampments until their demands are met. Their demands range from a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas to calls for universities to stop investing in Israeli enterprises involved with the country’s military. Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the UN is “troubled by a series of heavy-handed steps taken to disperse and dismantle protests”.
A retired teacher saw inspiration in Columbia’s protests. Eric Adams called her an outside agitator
Before police officers poured into Columbia University on Tuesday night, arresting more than 100 people as they cleared an occupied school building and tent encampment, New York City Mayor Eric Adams received a piece of intelligence he said shifted his thinking about the campus demonstrations over the war in Gaza.
“Outside agitators” working to “radicalize our children” were leading students into more extreme tactics, the mayor claimed. And one of them, Adams said repeatedly in media appearances Wednesday morning, was a woman whose husband was “convicted for terrorism.”
But the woman referenced by the mayor wasn’t on Columbia’s campus this week, isn’t among the protesters who were arrested and has not been accused of any crime.
Read more:
A retired teacher saw inspiration in Columbia's protests. Eric Adams called her an outside agitator
Before and after police officers arrested more than 100 people at Columbia University who were protesting the war in Gaza, New York Mayor Eric Adams blamed “outside agitators” for leading the demonstrations
VIDEO: NYPD tear down tents inside Fordham University to disperse Gaza protesters
NYPD tear down tents inside Fordham University to disperse Gaza protesters
NYPD officers tore down tents inside a Fordham University building on Wednesday, 1 May, as they cleared a Gaza protester encampment. Police escorted demonstrators away from the Lincoln Center campus. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said "individuals who refused to disperse from the unlawful encampment... [were placed] under arrest." Fordham University requested NYPD assistance, she added. It came amid similar action staged at other universities across the US; police arrested more than 130 demonstrators early Thursday at UCLA. Pro-Palestine encampment protests have also spread to the UK.
ICYMI: Human Rights Watch weighs in on response to protests
The Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for human rights, weighed in on the pro-Palestinian protests popping up across the country.
Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director for the organisation, wrote that colleges must protect students’ right to protest.
“There have been troubling reports of antisemitic incidents in and around Columbia University’s campus,” Mr Charbonneau wrote. “Allegations of antisemitic acts and speech by individuals, as well as acts of Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination, should be investigated and addressed on the merits in a case-by-case basis, through fair and transparent processes.”
“As protests spread to campuses across the country, university administrations should be careful not to mislabel criticism of Israeli government policies or advocacy for Palestinian rights as inherently antisemitic or to misuse university authority to quash peaceful protest,” he continued. “Instead, universities should safeguard people’s rights to assembly and free expression.”
ICYMI: Coalition of Columbia faculty call for vote of no confidence in administrators
The Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors is calling for a vote of no confidence in President Minouche Shafik and her fellow administrators.
In a statement, the chapter condemned her decision to call the New York Police Department on protesters who had occupied Hamilton Hall Tuesday night.
“This decision was made without consultation with the University Senate, in violation of established procedures, by recourse to so-called emergency powers,” the chapter said in a Thursday statement. “It also flew in the face of efforts by the AAUP and faculty trusted by the student protestors to de-escalate the situation on campus and to serve as observers in negotiations–efforts endorsed by the University Senate chair that continued into the afternoon before the assault.”
More than 100 people were arrested on Columbia’s campus Tuesday evening.
WATCH: Biden insists 'order must prevail' as police shut down college Gaza protests
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