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

May 1, 2024

Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard, Public Information, Police Department: Hey. Good morning, everybody. In a minute you're going to hear from the mayor and the leadership of the NYPD, the police commissioner as well.  

I think last night is another example of why we call New York's Finest. Just a tremendous job done by the men and women of the NYPD. Such restraint, such precision. Just a totally, totally, totally great job by the men and women of the NYPD, especially our ESU, SRG, and CRT units. From all of us up here, we just want to commend them. I'm sure from most of the New Yorkers we spoke to, big kudos to those units and all of the cops who helped in that operation last night. Let's get this started and let's hear from the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, Tarik. I want to be clear that although there was a massive operation taking place at Columbia University, we also was dealing with and dealing with an operation taking place at CUNY, and we also had a city to protect.  

This is not the department that will deal with one production at a time. There are a multitude of things that happens in a city of this capacity and magnitude, and you have to be a well-organized professional operation to deal with all of those encounters. I just want to thank Commissioner Caban, Chief of Department Maddrey, Chief Chell, Commissioner Daughtry, First Deputy Commissioner Kinsella, and the entire operation. 

Specifically, I just really want to thank Commissioner Weiner. She was the one that was monitoring the situation when I first started seeing the protests take place in the city. It just did not fit right. I saw similar indicators from the Black Lives Matter march when it was brought to my attention that there were those who came to the city to disrupt our city. She was able, through her team, was able to conduct an investigation and what I feared was actually materialized and actualized by those who were on the ground.  

I know that there are those who are attempting to say, "Well, the majority of people may have been students." You don't have to be the majority to influence and co-opt an operation. That is what this is about. If we want to play the word "police," you could do so. I'm going to play the New York City police, where we are going to protect our city from those who are attempting to do what is happening globally.  

There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I'm not going to wait until it's done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it. This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children, and I'm not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the City of New York. The men and women of the New York City Police Department should be proud of yourself.  

At the request of Columbia University, after speaking with them throughout the week, at their request, and their acknowledgment, that outside agitators were on their grounds training and really co-opting this movement. At their request, we went in and conducted an operation to allow Columbia University to remove those who have turned the peaceful protests into a place where antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes were pervasive.  

Approximately 300 people were arrested at Columbia and City College were processing the arrests to distinguish between who were actual students and who were not supposed to be on the ground. We pointed out yesterday, these external actors with a history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos. Not to peacefully protest, but create chaos. 

If you were at City College and you saw the bottles, the garbage cans, the other items that were thrown at police officers, those police officers showed a great level of discipline to not allow this to evolve to an out-of-control situation. As we pointed out yesterday, they are attempting to disrupt our city, and we are not going to permit it to happen. We're proud to say they have been removed from the campus. The NYPD's precision policing ensured that the operation was organized, calm, and that there were no injuries or violent clashes.  

To be clear, this is not our analysis of what took place last night. National independent journalists acknowledge what the Police Department did yesterday, and they were on the ground to see it. I want to be clear that we will continue to use this level of professionalism. We saw the intersectionality of all the things we have been working on.  

Drones allowed us to do a complete analysis of the Hamilton building and of the location. We were able to know how to precisely go in and conduct the operation, making sure the encryption of our radios because they were not able to monitor and hear our deployment tactics, it allowed us to have the element of surprise that we went on the ground, training with our CRT team, precisionly knowing how to go in and conduct a professional operation. 

We didn't wake up and executed a plan. This is a plan that has been put in place since January 2022, when we understood our Police Department had to be prepared for uncertainties like this. The request we received in writing could not have been clearer. While those who broke into the building did include students, it was led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university. 

The school needed the NYPD's assistance to clear Hamilton Hall and the encampments outside, a dual operation on the grounds that took place successfully, clearing the tents, taking back and reclaiming Hamilton Hall. We said from the beginning that students have a right to protest, and free speech is the cornerstone of our society. As our major concern, we knew and we saw that those who were never concerned about free speech, they were concerned about chaos. 

It was about external actors hijacking peaceful protests and influence students to escalate. There's nothing peaceful about barricading buildings, destroying property, or dismantling security cameras. We cannot allow what should be a lawful protest to turn into a violent spectacle that saves and serves no purpose, as I said. There's no place for acts of hate in our city. We've made that clear. That's from antisemitism to Islamophobia to anti-Sikhism and other communities as an AAPI community. 

We have been consistent. There's no place for hate in this city, and I want to continue to commend the professionalism of the Police Department and to thank Columbia University. It was a tough decision. We understood that, but with the very clear evidence of their observation and the clear evidence from our intelligence division that they understood it was time to move and the action had to end, and we brought it to a peaceful conclusion. We're going to continue to coordinate with Columbia as we have been from the start in all of our academic institutions to find a peaceful middle of allowing our young people to protest without violence. 

We support the right of free speech. In open debate, we will always protect the right to protest, but we must balance the right with keeping students, the school, and our city safe. It is a combined effort that we're going to continue to move in the right direction to accomplish this goal. We know that this is only a comma in the full sentence of public protection in the city. This is not a celebratory moment. We should never have had to have to get here in the first place. We can't create environments while children can be in danger, and we must push back on all attempts to radicalize our young people in this city like we're seeing across the entire globe. 

Commissioner, thank you for a job well done. Turn it over to you at this time. 

Police Commissioner Edward Caban: Good morning. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Yesterday, the NYPD received written notification from both Columbia University and the City College of New York. The situation on their campuses had deteriorated to a point where the safety of their students, faculty, staff, and the public was at risk. Last night, at both schools request the NYPD enter the campuses and remove protesters who refused to leave the area. Approximately 300 arrests were made, with preliminary charges ranging from trespass to criminal mischief to burglary. 

At this point, we’ll let the criminal justice system play out. As we said last night, the university has worked for weeks to negotiate with the protesters to resolve the situation and to restore order on their campuses. Once it became clear that public safety was a real concern, especially after the protests escalated the situation by breaking and entering into a university building. The NYPD was called in to do their job. I just want to say to the men and women of this department, thank you. 

Since the terrorist attack of October 7th, the NYPD has responded to more than 2,400 protests and demonstrations across this city, about 1,100 of those related to the situation in Israel and Palestine.  

Everyone we've worked to keep protesters safe and protect their First Amendment rights. At the same time, we work to keep our residents and workforce safe, to make sure our neighborhoods have full access to emergency services, and to keep life moving in the largest city in the nation. 

This isn't easy work, but no one does it better than the men and women of the NYPD. Lastly, I want to thank the officials at both Columbia University and City College for their efforts in a developing situation. They continue with an open communication with everyone involved, from the protestors, to their students and staff, to city officials, including the Police Department, was all about public safety.  

At the end of the day, that's what we're focused on, our job is to keep people in our city safe and the NYPD is going to do their job anywhere and anytime we're called upon. They try to lock us out, but the NYPD and the people of the City of New York will never be locked out, and we will always work together to keep our city safe. 

Moderator: With that let's take– Any questions or thoughts? 

Question: Commissioner and Mr. Mayor, I wonder if you could tell us how many of the people who were arrested both inside Hamilton Hall and outside were not affiliated with the school, were not students, were outside agitators both inside and outside, and I have a second question. 

Police Commissioner Caban: Thank you, I'll pass that question over to our Chief of Patrol John Chell. 

Chief John Chell, Chief of Patrol, Police Department: Right now, as it breaks down, we have 282 arrests. 

Question: Sir, can you talk a little bit load. 

Chief Chell: As of right now we have 282 arrests, 173 of those came from City College, and 109 came from Columbia, how it breaks down to your question, we'll have that answer sometime today, we haven't broken it down yet, but we will have that answer. 

Question: Can you give us any more details about the people who were not affiliated with them or what groups they were associated with? 

Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner, Intelligence and Counterterrorism, Police Department: Good morning, so there are a number of different individuals who we know from over the years associated with protests, not just in our city, but in other cities as well, who are linked to and who we see doing training around the change in tactics that we described yesterday and that we all witnessed. 

The black block attire, the breaking windows, breaking doors, the vandalism, property destruction, the barricading makeshift weapons that we recovered in the encampment, so that change in tactics combined with the presence of known individuals on campus, in the lead up to what happened in Hamilton Hall, is why we had a real elevated concern around public safety. 

Mayor Adams: Just one moment, Marcia, we know that the terminology of outside agitators was used during the civil rights movement and people attempted to show that the movement was not legitimate, so we understand that, but this Police Department cannot be caught up on what's the politically correct terminology.  

We have to be caught up on public safety, there were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. There were people who are professionals. We saw evidence of training. We saw a shift in tactics that were being used. When you start using the intelligence that intel was able to supply, we knew it was time to communicate directly with the school and say you have more than a peaceful protest on your hand. 

Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, Operations, Police Department: Mr. Mayor, if I could just add to that, just as the letter said we received from Columbia. The witness was led by outside agitators. This was also stated in the letter that we received when Columbia asked us to move in. 

Moderator: I think we have a video that we want to show you before we take some more questions. I'm going to go play the video. 

[Video plays.] 

Before we continue with the questions, I'll ask Commissioner Sheppard just give a quick overview of what we just saw and then we'll continue with the questions. 

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: Yes. The reason why we just showed that video is that a lot of arrests made almost 300 arrests made last night. What you see is the overwhelming majority of those arrests that were made without incident. No injuries, no real scuffles with police. It was just an amazing job. Again, kudos to Chief Aramboles and his team, SRG and ESU and obviously Commissioner Daughtry leading and Chief Chell leading the CRT last night. 

Make no mistake about it. This is a very difficult operation, but we made it look like that it wasn't problematic and the reason was the skill of the cops that were out there last night. A lot of these people would have resisted, but the way that these officers talked to them, handled them and took them into custody, it was very professional. The overwhelming majority's arrest just led to a quick arrest with no incident and then right down to [inaudible] where they were processed. 

Mayor Adams: Another significant part of the video was at the end. That's our flag folks. No, take over other buildings and put another flag up. That may be fine to other people, but it's not to me. My uncle died defending this country, and these men and women put their lives on the line. It's despicable that schools will allow another country flag to fly in our country. So blame me for being proud to be an American. I thank Commissioner Daughtry for putting that flag back up. We are not surrendering our way of life to anyone. 

Question: I wanted to just double back on the outside agitators. I know you said you'd identified some people. Why is it so difficult for the NYPD to say, "X amount of people were outside agitators?" Especially since you've identified them, the mayor's been talking about them for more than a week.  

Secondly, blocking reporters from covering the events, then tweeting out your own videos, showing us this video, it's different than what we were seeing outside, especially the use of what seemed to be use of force from the police. Is that part of the NYPD's attempt to control the narrative, which I know some of the people in the dais have talked about before, but I guess first with the outside agitators. Why is it difficult to just say 10 people, 20 people, especially as you say, they were leading the occupation of the building? 

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: Yes. I think it's not difficult to say that we know certain individuals are well known to us, who have been involved in what we assess to be training, especially around a change in tactics.  

We're in the process of sorting through all of the data that we recovered last night, so shifting through the names of everybody and were they affiliated with the school or not, that takes time and we want to make sure that we're giving you accurate information. But I think the larger point is really important, which is, this is not about students expressing ideas.  

It is about a change in tactics that presents a concern and a normalization and mainstreaming of rhetoric. I'm not just talking about language, I'm now talking about tactics. That's what shifted our response yesterday. A normalization and mainstreaming of rhetoric associated with terrorism, that has now become pretty common on college campuses. You see people wearing headbands associated with foreign terrorist organizations. 

This happened in October when you had a viral TikTok reissuing of Osama Bin Laden's 2002, letter to America. That's a larger concern. It's separate from what happened yesterday, but they're related. We do not want ideas. We do not want campuses which are where people are supposed to be learning and being in a conducive environment for all of the things that we do in schools, being turned into places where people are committing vandalism, property damage, and committing crimes. 

Question: If you know who the leaders are, you said yesterday to defense conference, it would be repeated on national television. Why not say three, four or five people? The mayor said last week that he questioned why all the tens were the same [inaudible]. It's this question about that [inaudible] been a prevalent message being shared by the [inaudible] City Hall. Can you offer us any more insight into it beyond just a lock that they sold to [inaudible] students? 

Mayor Adams: Let me be very clear. This is an ongoing, evolving investigation. The Intelligence Division must be extremely sensitive about information they release. Our goal is not to assure you get a good story. Our goal is to make sure that we tell the right story. There are people that we have been watching in organizations that are not part of the campus. We've been very clear. There are individuals in organizations that are not students. We see a shift in tactics that are being used, destruction of property, destructions of cameras, and so many other things. 

We saw paraphernalia and pamphlets about disruptions. There's a series of things that the intelligence division has brought to make a determination that there's an influence going on right now. Now we know that people rather put in a neat little bow, but that is not the way law enforcement operates. We're not going to release any information that is too sensitive to release at this time. We know they're outside individuals that have been influencing this issue. 

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: The second part of your question when it comes to the press. Just take you back through yesterday, we released two messages to the press right before this operation was taking place, that if you a member of the press and you wanted to get some access and get some shots to come and meet a DCPI representative on 114th Street and then we will work it out with you from there.  

The reason why we have our own cameras inside of there is because we have police officers, they have tactical gear, they have helmets, they have vests, and we don't know what to expect when we go through these doors. We cannot just take the press and go hitting doors with ESU. It doesn't work like that. We were very transparent and we also shared our video with members of the media this morning. It's available from DCPI now to continue sharing. 

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: Commissioner, let me just add on to that. When we, and Carlos, you can chime in if you want, but when we took action on NYU or received NYU's letter that they wanted declare their encampment. My own personal opinion is that the press got in the way of our operation. There was hundreds of views getting in the way of officers as they were trying to make arrests. 

Question: Not that many of course. 

Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry: Okay. I'm saying it was more than 50 and we got video to prove that. Thank you Commissioner Sheppard for getting the press together so we can know where the press is at and that we don't confuse them with the students or protestors. Thank you. 

Question: Oh, thanks. My question is twofold. I want to know about the individuals who are in training who made these makeshift weapons, who have the pamphlets, and all of that. Is that one certain group, would you call this a new breed of homegrown terrorists that we should be worried about here in New York City if you're tracking them across America?  

Then my second question is about that impressive tactic of going into the building on that Bearcat that was dramatic and impressive to see. Was there something about the timing of when you did that? Can you paint a picture of what was going inside, what you could see on the drones with those makeshift weapons? Was violence imminent and did you think at that point you have to go in? 

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: No. I think it's really important to very in a nuanced way describe what we're seeing. I wouldn't describe it as a new breed of homegrown terrorism. There is though a concern around radicalization as the mayor and the police commissioner have conveyed, I think very effectively.  

This is a time when, if you have, and to your point about being more specific. Last week there was the wife of somebody who had been convicted for material support to terrorism on campus. We have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on her part, but that's not somebody who I would want necessarily influencing my child if I were a parent of somebody at Columbia or the individuals who were involved in doing some of this training and tactical awareness activity.  

These students don't come in the doors knowing how to barricade themselves behind barriers that they've created. These are all skills that are taught and learned, and that presents a problem. This is not about policing ideas in any way, shape, or form. It is about recognizing when there is an actual public safety concern.  

We mentioned this yesterday, but it's worth reiterating. To the protesters themselves, if you're barricaded in a building and an emergency happens, there's a risk to you. It's specific, and we have to be calibrated, but we also have to be open and honest about what we're seeing, and we're seeing a trajectory that concerns us.  

Oh, yes, so some images of stuff that was recovered, and there was the image on the bottom left was pretty widespread distribution in the initial weeks after October 7th, and when we saw a lot of big numbers of individuals in protests, which is just a map of locations that were focused on for protest activity.  

Imagery on the top right suggesting fomenting chaos and squatting as a tactic, which we've seen in protests previously, some zip ties, and some what we would call a very rudimentary makeshift weapon. I think the reason for all of the protective gear that you saw last night, and I don't want to speak for my colleagues who specialize in this, is to protect officers when you're going into a situation that you don't fully understand what might greet you on the other side of the door. This is important, and it is not just a New York City issue, it's obviously not just a Columbia issue. We saw it spread to CCNY last night, but this is unfolding across the country and in Europe as well. This is a challenge we're all going to be dealing with for some time. 

Chief Wilson Aramboles, Special Operations, Police Department: Good morning, everyone. It took carefully planning, especially with the chief of the department, Chief Maddrey, and also all the executive boards, chief members in our department, to plan this tactics to enter this building.  

As we saw, there was several areas where it was barricaded by several items, such as vending machines, chairs, tables, and so on. As we entered, it was very difficult for us to get in and push our way through because they were throwing objects at us. It was very difficult. The amount that it took, but we tactically had every team around the building to enter that building. So there was carefully planning. 

Question: Since we're on this topic, can we just go through a tick-tock of some of the planning, [inaudible] maybe how that played out, at what point did we decide to plan for this, and how well that came together? 

Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, Chief of Department, Police Department: I'll speak to that. Thank you for just bringing that question to life. We really didn't plan for this. Remember, Hamilton Hall was just taken over fairly recently.  

We didn't get any requests from Columbia. As matter of fact, I did a press conference around 11 o'clock yesterday, we did not have a request. When I finally got to the office yesterday and we realized we had a request, we had to put a plan together fast.  

This is what we do. We're the best police department in the world for a reason, because we do have the ability to adapt, sit down, we brought all the thought leaders in the room, chief of Special Operations Division, chief of Emergency Service Unit, the chief of Patrol, chief of Transit, chief of Housing, I had them all in the room because they have years and years, hundreds of years of experience in the room. 

We had to figure out how we were gonna deal with what was going on in the street, which was the first part of the plan because we had to be able to move. We had to be able to bring the Bearcat in. We had to make sure we had a clear passage for the buses once we had arrested individuals on the buses.  

There was a lot that went into it. Then we had to deal with the encampment, and then we had to deal with the building and we had to make sure we kept them separate. The decision was made that Chief Patrol would lead the strategy on the ground to deal with the encampment while the Chief of Special Operations Division and the Chief of ESU would deal with the building.  

All that equipment you see is lifesaving equipment. It's not equipment to go out and hurt and attack you, that is lifesaving equipment. When we have to save someone, that's the equipment that we use.  

In this case, we had to breach a building, a very difficult building, a building that we knew doors were fortified with vending machines, couches, metal chairs. The students and the people who were in the building were also pushing against the building and throwing objects at ESU as they made entry.  

For the first time in many years, we used distraction devices, something we haven't used in years. The only person in the department who's authorized to allow that is me. Before we sat down, I told the members of the ESU, try not to use them, but if we're under attack, and we have to do this not only to keep them safe, but to keep the students safe, we made a decision to use them, and that's what we did.  

Even prior to going to Columbia, we had to pivot because City College got violent. We had to send some of the resources from Columbia to help deal with City College, come back down to Columbia, then go back to City College. We didn't plan for that. This is [the] department's ability to move and pivot as needed to keep people safe. That's what we did yesterday.  

Chief Chell: I just want to add one more thing to that. We also had to secure five dorms of over 2,000 students to make sure they were safe. We didn't give them the option to come out of the dorm for just that reason. There was 2,000 additional kids on that campus that we secured. They didn't come out, and that's what added to the level of safety and success we had in this plan. 

Question: Hi, Commissioner Weiner to go back to the wife of the man convicted on terror charges. Was she advising them? Training them? Can you give us a little bit more on what she was doing there? 

Deputy Commissioner Weiner: Her presence was last week. It was before what we saw over the last couple of days. We haven't been in the encampment, so we don't have a lot of fidelity on exactly. It isn't just her.  

There was a ton of people coming onto the campus and Columbia University described in their letter that the college had become a magnet for people from the outside. Again, this isn't just something we're hearing from Columbia, it's something that other universities have told us as well. They know their student population better than anybody. We know the people we know, they know their community, and so this is something we are all seeing independently is external folks. 

Does this inherently mean that you're going to see the kind of escalatory tactics that we saw yesterday? It may or may not, but when we do see them we understand that there's a risk. 

Question: Oh, thanks Carlos. Thanks guys for doing this. Maybe for the commissioner or the mayor if you could just say a little bit about prior to the authorization letter arriving what your conversations with Columbia were like that led up to it, and then what information you were sharing and what they were telling you.  

Then also just your expectations on presence going forward. How many officers remain on campus? It seems like you're authorized to be there through commencement. What's your expectation about what you're going to have to do in the next couple of weeks? 

Mayor Adams: The commissioner could talk about his conversations, but we have been having ongoing conversations with all of our universities. Once we picked up from our intelligence that there was a real desire to start taking over buildings and a desire to escalate what was happening already.  

We spoke with the institutions and told them, we are here when you need us. We're going to pivot quickly. I think it was clear from the combination of what Intel was able to share and the observations that the schools were making, that the decision was made as Chief Maddrey stated. 

This was a last minute call. When we did our press conference we did not receive a letter at that time, but I think the escalation of taking over the Hamilton building people saw the information that the intel was supplying, but we have been in regular contact with the school leadership not only the president, but part of their operation management. We communicated with them, shared information with them. As we got it we shared– with them.  

We knew the balance of not going in without being invited unless there was imminent threat. We knew that balance. I know the commissioner can share his conversations also with the leadership. 

Commissioner Caban: Yep, pretty much the same conversations about students' right to protest peacefully and obviously keeping every student, faculty, and staff safe at the schools. I'll turn it over to chief of the department, who will talk about what we're going to do going forward as far as presence there at the schools. 

Chief Maddrey: Right after this, we're going to go out, we're going to do assessment of the campus. We're going to make sure we speak with the campus officials, and then we're going to make a determination what kind of resources that we're going to put there.  

Our resources are there to support the university staff, the public safety on campus, the teachers, the faculty members on campus, just to make sure that the environment is safe. That's what our goal is going forward. We're going to see how we can assist them, make a determination of how many officers that will be needed to do that so that the campus, the faculty, public safety, the teachers, the leadership, they can function and get through commencement. 

Question: There'll be an NYPD [inaudible]. 

Chief Chell: The campus is secure as we speak, and we'll do a reassessment like Chief Maddrey just mentioned.