Transcript: Mayor Adams Briefs Media on Recent Protests at Columbia University With NYPD Commissioner Caban

April 30, 2024

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZV1tCZcrdU

Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard, Public Information, Police Department: All right, good evening, everybody. You're about to hear from Mayor Adams, the police commissioner, Caban, and our commissioner for intel, Deputy Commissioner Weiner, on the situation up at Columbia as it stands now. First up will be Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. I have been saying for days, if not weeks now, that what should have been a peaceful protest, it has basically been co-opted by professionals outside agitators. We were extremely cautious about releasing our intel information because our goal was to ensure the safety of our students, the faculty, and without any destruction of property. 

We are here today to update New Yorkers about the ongoing situation at Columbia University and our plans to protect students, our staff, and the public. We were well aware, based on a series of observations, that what should have been a peaceful protest that is part of the constitutional rights of Americans has clearly been co-opted, a right which this administration supports and defends to voice your concern. We have also, we’ll continue, and we have sounded the alarm numerous times before about external actors who are attempting to hijack this protest. 

Tonight, we're here to show you some examples of these external actors who have no — no — affiliation with Columbia University, as well as some of our other educational facilities. They are actively creating serious public safety issues at these protests. Maybe some of the students involved don't understand what they are involved in. We urge those and everyone else violating Columbia's order to leave the area and leave the area now. If you are a parent or guardian of a student, please call your child and urge them to leave the area before the situation escalates in any way. This is for their own safety and for the safety of others. These external actors are obviously not students, and their presence on campus is a violation of Columbia's clearly stated policy. 

As the police commissioner and our Deputy Commissioner for Intel and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner will detail, you will see why this is of concern to us. This group and the individuals we're going to, one that we're going to show, is an outside agitator with a history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos. It is our belief we are now actively co-opting what should be a peaceful gathering. This is to serve their own agenda. They're not here to promote peace or unity or allow a peaceful displaying of one's voice, but they're here to create discord and divisiveness. That is why I'm urging every student and every protestor to walk away from this situation now and continue your advocacy through other means. 

We will always protect the right to protest, but we must balance that right with the right to keep students, the school, and our city safe. We cannot and will not allow what should be a peaceful gathering to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose. We cannot wait till this situation becomes even more serious. This must end now. I'm going to now turn it over to Commissioner Caban.

Police Commissioner Edward Caban: Thank you very much, Mayor Adams, and good evening, everyone. Over the past two weeks or so, this has been a dynamic, evolving situation, and we have been in contact with university officials from the beginning. Again, we are talking about private property, so decisions on what to do on that property are up to the university. 

With that being said, what we saw last night and into today is not acceptable. Furthermore, and this is very important, as the mayor has said, we are seeing professional external actors getting involved in these protests, including in the occupation of a university building. These people are not Columbia students. They are not affiliated with the university, and they are working to escalate the situation. We are seeing the tactics changing in a way that's endangering public safety. These once peaceful protests are being exploited by professional outside agitators, and the safety of all students, faculty, and staff are now a concern. 

The right to protest and speak your mind is critical to our democracy, and the NYPD's job is to protect that right. We will never tolerate violence, property damage, or disruption of emergency services. As we've said, once the university asks for our help, the NYPD will be there ready to assist them. Finally, to the parents, and I say this as a father of a college student myself, be aware of where your children are. Be aware of what they're involved in. If you don't know, reach out to them. The university and the NYPD are taking this situation seriously. You should be taking this situation seriously, too. Thank you.

Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner, Intelligence and Counterterrorism, Police Department: Good evening, everybody. As the mayor and the police commissioner have just been outlining, we've observed, and you all have as well, a really concerning escalation of activity associated with campus protests broadly, and in particular with Columbia University over the past 24 hours. This escalation presents a real threat to public safety.  
 

I want to make two points. One is to reiterate what the mayor and the police commissioner have mentioned that these protests have been and are being influenced by external actors who are unaffiliated with universities, some of whom have been known to our department and others for many years for their dangerous, disruptive, and at times criminal activity associated with protests for years. This is not about what's happening overseas. It's not about the last seven months. It's about a very different commitment to, at times, violent protest activity as an occupation. 

A number of university partners have reported to us in New York and also across the country that significant portions of their protestor populations are unaffiliated with their schools. They haven't got a right to be on campus and this violates university policies. Most importantly, it presents dangers to students and to the whole university communities where it's happening. 

Second, we see an escalation in tactics. When we see what we saw last night, I'm going to show you a few examples and they exemplify some of the behavior that we're seeing in a much more holistic way. We think these tactics are a result of guidance that's being given to students from some of these external actors. We see individuals in black bloc attire scaling buildings, breaking into windows, barricades being made out of furniture, or being dragged from the lawn into Hamilton Hall, cameras that have been destroyed. There's only one reason to destroy a camera. It's certainly not something anyone is taught to do in school. De-arresting tactics being encouraged, property destruction, signs being fortified into shields, reports of physical altercations between individuals and other forms of intimidation. This has gone to the next level and we have real cause for concern. 

I want to point out that this is an escalation that while it began last night at Columbia, we do expect it to continue beyond one building on one campus, but to other protests, to other universities, potentially to other cities. We are in constant dialogue with Columbia University officials as well as other partners. We are as always fully prepared to respond. We want to reiterate that our priority is and always will be public safety for all. 

I'm going to show you what is a two minute video clip. Again, some of this may be a little bit hard to interpret, but it shows us who've been looking at this stuff for quite some time two things. One is the presence of some external folks who are not affiliated with school. The second is the evolution and the change in tactics that we witnessed last night. If we could go ahead and play the video. There's a little bit of sound which I'll try to narrate over. 

This is two students who are trying to prevent the hall from being broken into being intimidated by some others, as well as some of the external actors that we have been talking about, making a barrier to be dragged into Hamilton Hall. Here's an example of two individuals breaking into windows. Again, the black bloc attire is something that we've seen in protest activity for quite some time, barricades that are being dragged into Hamilton Hall. Again, people unaffiliated with the school who are assisting in allowing them entry. Some training sessions that are occurring within the encampment itself. That is something that the university has been very clear that only university students are to be allowed within the encampment. These are just some still shots of some of the property destruction that we saw within Hamilton Hall. The windows breaking, the barricading, using furniture to prevent ingress and egress. You can see quite obviously that this is a public safety concern for the students themselves, for the protesters themselves, for anybody else on campus. The broken windows, more barricades, human beings chained together to try to prevent entry into the buildings. 

This is far beyond First Amendment protected speech and peaceful protest, which has been a key element of some of these things over the last few months. A lot of people involved, some of them are known to us and others are reported by university officials to be unaffiliated with campus. That is why we are urging people to take this opportunity to leave Hamilton Hall. Just to reiterate that we are here to make things and keep things safe for our city. Thank you.

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right, so we'll make this video available to you immediately after this press conference. For now, we'll take just a few questions on topic only. 

Question: If the NYPD were to go to Columbia, what charges would the students face? Does this message to leave Columbia now have time [inaudible]? 

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: We are in ongoing dialogue with officials, and of course, stand ready to come in if we are invited in. Of course, some of this activity, we would need to review the specific facts to see what charges might be appropriate. In particular, for folks who are unaffiliated with the university, it certainly looks to be like a trespass situation. Depending on their involvement, and the video will help us understand the full suite of their activity, there may be charges associated with the property destruction and the vandalism as well. 

Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, Operations, Police Department: All right. Good evening. For the individuals that are inside of Hamilton Hall, they will be charged with burglary in the third degree, criminal mischief, and trespassing. For the individuals that are in the encampments outside, they will be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Question: Could you tell us a little bit more about these people that you're describing? What they've been involved with in the past? Also, what strategies are you and the school using to identify and connect these people who are often hiding their faces with the people you've seen for years? Cameras or other technology? Super comprehensive [inaudible]. This is something we've heard 30 or 40 times, too, of how we know who these people are and what they're responsible for. 

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: In some cases, it's just through sheer force of being present at these protests over years, whether it was Occupy Wall Street, the Autonomous Zone in 2020, other protests around the country, Stop Cop City in Atlanta, so individuals who are familiar. In other cases, we rely on partner reporting to say this is individuals that are known to us. This is a collaborative effort. As most of our work is, it involves our officers who do this better than anyone, who have been doing it repeatedly over many months, and in some cases, over many years.

Question: I have two questions. One, could you talk us through some of these conversations that have been going on with university officials. How often are you talking to them? When you talk to them about this, what are they actually saying to you? Because I imagine that this has been communicated. The other question I have is, as far as the people, these professional agitators that you're saying, how many of them, if you had to put a number on them, are in Hamilton right now? How many of them are in that encampment? How many of them are in another place? 

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right. Mark, I’ll have the police commissioner address the first part of your question, and then I'll have Commissioner Weiner address the second part.

Police Commissioner Caban: Thank you, Mark. I just want to reiterate that we're in constant dialogue with the officials at Columbia University. Right now, there is no timetable. We have no letters from them. We are here ready to assist them whenever they need our help.  

Question: So when you show them this, have they said anything to that? 

Police Commissioner Caban: Right now, it's just constant dialogue. Right now, they're in contact, or they're in constant dialogue with the students themselves, trying to alleviate the situation. We are here ready to assist them whenever they're ready to ask for our help. 

[Crosstalk.] 

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: Hold on. Let Commissioner Weiner address the second part of how many of [inaudible] that Columbia is sending. 

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: Our visibility into what's going on is limited by the fact that we're not physically present within the campus. It's hard to answer your question with any degree of specificity. We know the ones we know, but we can't have a full accounting for what's going on and the fact of cameras being disabled further complicates our ability to assess the public safety risks in real time. 

Question: At least how many of the ones you know have… 

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: Mark, the commissioner's been pretty thorough with that one, all right? 

Question: I have two questions. I know you talked about the timeline, but Columbia has a commencement ceremony coming up on the 15th. Has the university president said that they want that done before that date or on that date? Then I just wanted to ask, those outside agitators at Hamilton Hall, is the NYPD going to deal with them differently than they would the other ones at the encampment? 

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right. I'll let Commissioner Daughtry answer the second part of your question. I think what the commissioner just said applies to the first part is that we're in constant contact. But right now we have not received any communication from the university that they want us to take action on that campus. 

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: Just to echo what the commissioner said, we said it a couple of times up here already. As soon as the university reaches out to us, we're more than willing and able to help them. As far as the second part of your question, we're going to treat them just like when we went into NYU, when we went into Columbia the first time. There was no incidents. Our officers went in there and performed admirably, as they were under attack by bottles, chairs, tables. We expect that. However, Police Commissioner Caban's Police Department is ready to take action when needed.

Thank you. 

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right. If there's a need to update, we will. Thanks, everybody for right now. All right. Thank you.

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