NYC Mayor Adams Backs Police Crackdown on Campus Protests

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the New York Police Department crackdown on campus demonstrators at Columbia University and City College of New York, telling ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the protests escalated into criminal activity and violence when protesters took over a building and vandalized property.

“We want to ensure we protect democracy and the right to protest, but we have an obligation that when those protests reach the point of violence, … we have to ensure that we use a minimum amount of force to terminate what is perceived to be a threat not only by our intelligence, but also the school and college officials,” Adams said.

The mayor added that universities should go ahead with their graduation ceremonies and not cave to pro-Palestinian demonstrators seeking to disrupt the events.

“We’ll do our job, and if the institutions decide to graduate their students and celebrate a beautiful experience with their families, we will make sure it’s done in a peaceful manner,” he said.

Adams said that the police raid and arrests came after days of communication between the NYPD and Columbia’s administrators.

The mayor said the information gathered by the NYPD’s intelligence division regarding outside “agitators” stirring unrest at Columbia and other colleges in the city was “concerning,” adding that they are making “a real attempt to radicalize our young people, [which] can’t [be taken] lightly.”

Adams stressed that “we knew we had to get permission unless there’s imminent threat to life or severe threat to property; we were not going to overstep our legal authority.”

He emphasized that “when you’re on college grounds and you do not attend that college, you’re an outsider. And then when you train people to do destructive things, you are an agitator. So I’m not trying to be politically correct. I’m trying to be correct for the city of New York as we make sure the city continues to be safe.”