A senior New York City Police Department (NYPD) leader defended the department’s decision to aggressively clear pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University and other colleges Tuesday, saying police “set the tone for the city” against protests he described as “lawless” and run by “spoiled kids.”
Hundreds of NYPD officers armed with batons and wearing riot gear stormed Columbia’s campus Tuesday evening at the request of university administration to remove pro-Palestinian protest encampments set up by students, and to take back a campus building seized by protesters.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell, who helped lead the operation, told Leland Vittert in a NewsNation interview Wednesday that his officers “performed admirably.”
“What we’re doing is we’re holding these students accountable,” he said. “These are some spoiled kids who think they can do what they want. No accountability, no consequences, backed up by teachers who are on the same page with them.”
Chell said the NYPD is committed to acting quickly against similar protests going forward.
“And let me be clear here: We support their right to protest. It’s a good thing, we do it properly,” he said. “But, you know, under this mayor, our commissioner, the lawless part of it, to the extent that we are not going to put up with it, and we’re going to act fast when we see it. And I think we are doing that, and we’re changing the narrative in the city.”
The police response to the protest received a mixed reception from lawmakers, splitting Democrats, with progressives harshly denouncing the actions while others, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), commended it.
Former President Trump also lauded the NYPD response as a “beautiful thing to watch.”
New York City Council member Tiffany Cabán blasted the police action as “authoritarian” and a “colossal disgrace” Wednesday.
“Our leaders are teaching students that not only won’t their peaceable assembly and petition of government result in a redress of grievances, in fact it will land them in jail,” she wrote in a statement. “This is an extremely dangerous lesson to teach, and will come back to haunt those teaching it.”
Chell responded in a social media post saying Cabán’s sentiments were “garbage” and that she “hates our city and certainly does not represent the great people of NYC.”
In the NewsNation interview Wednesday, Chell also repeated claims from New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and university administrators that the protesters occupying Hamilton Hall were “outside agitators,” which has been disputed by some Columbia faculty.
“And this is what we deal with: outside, agitating, influencing young kids on campus,” he said. “And we put that to rest last night. Our cops performed admirably, and we had no issues and we set the tone for the country, the city for everyone to watch.”
NYPD has not announced how many of the dozens arrested from the protest Tuesday were not students. Chell said one piece of evidence of outside influence was the use of high-strength bike locks to block doors.
“When our emergency service team went into Hamilton Hall to secure that location, they were met with locks, your garden variety locks that mom and dad certainly didn’t buy you at the Home Depot,” he said. “These are all the doors that we have to compromise.”
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard made the same claim in an MSNBC “Morning Joe” appearance Wednesday, showing a bike lock from the brand Kryptonite. The same locks are recommended to students by the Columbia University’s Public Safety office and sold at a discount.
Tensions had built for more than a week at Columbia, where a pro-Palestinian encampment sparked hundreds of similar campus protests nationwide against the Biden administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. Protests have demanded a cease-fire in the conflict, the end of military aid to Israel, and for their colleges and universities to divest from Israeli interests.
Columbia is at the center of political attention for the protests. The campus has hosted visits from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and numerous members of Congress from both sides of the aisle since the protesting began.
Lawmakers from both parties have called on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign if protests cannot be quickly quelled.
More than 1,000 students have been arrested nationwide at similar protests, some of which have featured violent clashes with police and counterprotesters.
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.