6 mo. ago • 96%

Columbia University community 'shattered' after police raid

www.bbc.com Columbia University community 'shattered' after police raid

Students say they have lost trust and are in limbo after New York officers arrested Gaza protesters.

Police and private security throng every entrance but one. Steel barriers line the streets. Students pack up belongings in their cars and leave for home - classes are cancelled, and exam plans are up in the air.

Everywhere there is gloom, and uncertainty about what happens next at Columbia University.

Students told the BBC that the university's decision to call in police to clear a Gaza protest late on Tuesday, leading to a raid on the occupied Hamilton Hall and hundreds of arrests, has left the college community shattered.

The university president, Nemat Shafik, said that it was with great regret that she ordered the police raid against students and others she said had infiltrated the protest. It would "take time to heal", she added in a message in the operation's aftermath.

For students of this prestigious school in Manhattan, New York, how long is unclear.

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128 comments

Only authoritarian governments crush student protests

216
How to radicalize a lot of smart people in a very short period of time

207
It would "take time to heal", she added

That's some big "I'm sorry you made me do this to you" abuser energy there

190
The President needs to resign.

108
Imagine if the Columbia administration decided they could swim in regular water instead of a moneybin like Scrooge McDuck and divested the university from Israel. Maybe all of this could have been avoided.

57
Other than "wrong thought" what was it that the protesters were doing that required such a heavy handed response?

By contrast, in a country with actual freedom Student protesters at McGill encampment determined to stay after judge rejects injunction

49
Keep fighting! We're starting to win

39
Ahhhh, the good old land of the free...

29
and others she say had infiltrated the protest

What’s this about?

25
I'd put a #IthoughtthiswasAmerica here

11
People with six months of training arresting people getting 4-year degrees.

11
God I hate the dramatization of articles like this.

8
nothing can screw up a kids future quite like college

5
Then don't give them your money or time and transfer to another school?

5
The verbiage on these posts have me laughing.

-18
I was with them (because one SHOULD be able to exercise their constitutional rights) until they started breaking shit.

We have a right to peacefully assemble, not act like idiots.

Now, I still wish this was handled differently. They really should have tried to just go after the idiots and not everyone.

-26
Those "peaceful protestors" were smashing windows and camping in tents on the lawn of the Universities. And that's not even the worst part, where they are actively supporting Hamas. Sounds like they're just angry about facing consequences, to me.

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