There is no justification for this.

 

I think it’s pretty awful that for over a week or so now, the discussion in America has largely focused on campus protests by college students rather than the still-dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the looming threat of a full scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, or the discovery of mass graves outside hospitals in areas the IDF has retreated from. And, yes, generally as much as I agree with the sentiments espoused by this particular protest the student movements conducting them are still far-leftwing groups prone to dangerous mob mentality. They hold views I largely disagree with and many of them are deluded into thinking Hamas is objectively good. 

But none of that matters once the riot police are sent in against student protestors who are unarmed and doing what is frankly, from an objective perspective that doesn’t care about Gaza, little more than an annoying sit-in of their own college.

Not too long after 9 PM Eastern Standard Time tonight, April 30th 2024, NYPD riot police were sent into Columbia University to forcibly remove student protestors in Hamilton Hall. With the police was an old MRAP armoured car in NYPD service, retrofitted with a bridge that was used to breach the second floor of the building like some bizarre militarised version of the airport catering trucks used to deliver food to passenger aeroplanes. Officers entered Hamilton Hall while others in riot gear surrounded it to prevent journalists or other independent observers from getting a look at police conduct.  

 

It could be worse, yes, because if Trump was President he would’ve at minimum been sending in Federal agents like he did in 2020. And, as far as I know, at the moment I’m writing this serious violence has not broken out though I dread the possibility this is going to become the next Kent State. But this is still an abominable overreaction by the college administration, the NYPD, the New York City government, and the various politicians in Congress raising fear about this. 

These students are a largely peaceful group occupying the campus of the college they attend to protest a genocide being committed by a (nominal) ally of the United States. Their only crime is being the very stereotype of annoying college children who believe themselves to be the vanguard of a leftist revolution. (For the record, in his invitation to the police requesting their assistance, Columbia’s President has alleged that “while the group who broke into the [Hamilton Hall] building includes students, it is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University.” I am personally skeptical of this claim.) 

The protests are technically squatting on private property so there is a fair argument that breaking them up does not constitute a First Amendment violation. Okay, sure. I am firm in my belief that either way, both the college and the broad government, from the NYC level up to the Federal level, have still violated these students’ rights and failed to protect their safety by choosing in their response to use riot police to breach into college property and forcibly remove peacefully-protesting students to detain them. This is an incredibly disproportionate response that verges on violent state suppression of dissenters and runs the very real risk of endangering the students. I am unsurprised, but appalled.

 

I watched coverage of the police raid on livestream by a YouTube channel called “NDN collective” (they are the source for all non-Twitter screenshots). I have little clue who or what they are, though the phrase collective indicates a leftist bent. The person filming noted with some amusement that one of the policemen, pictured above, held a riot baton in hands clothed in gloves with an American flag pattern. He probably saw it as darkly comedic symbolism of what he considers to be a fundamental truth. I see it as disgusting irony and desecration of our flag by this policeman. Either way, it reflects an awful reality: the United States government is determined to continue supporting Israel in direct opposition to its own best interests, the principles of the Constitution, and the will of the American people, and to that end many in power are becoming increasingly willing to use force to cow dissent.