… Columbia University administrators called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) on Wednesday evening to violently suppress and shut down a pro-Palestinian student occupation of the campus’ Butler Library. Approximately 78 protesters were arrested just over a year after the police-state crackdown at Columbia last April, when the NYPD swarmed the campus to arrest over 100 students and break up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

On Wednesday afternoon, a group of around 100 anti-genocide student protesters took over Butler’s main reading room and renamed it the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” after the Palestinian activist and writer killed by Israeli forces in 2017.

The students’ demands include Columbia’s financial divestment from Zionist organizations, an academic boycott of complicit institutions, cops and ICE off campus and amnesty for all university members unfairly targeted and disciplined for pro-Palestinian actions.

Columbia’s Public Safety officers immediately responded and violently barred protesters from leaving unless they showed identification, which created a prolonged standoff…

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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    29 days ago

    If peaceful protest is going to be consistently met with violent police response; maybe they should stop being peaceful from the outset.

    • Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      29 days ago

      I wonder how long it will take for enough to realise their government is not compatible with protests. Peer pressure does not encourage authoritarians.

      • standarduser@lemm.ee
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        29 days ago

        It won’t happen at this rate. Last thing that was closest to that was the CHOP zone in Seattle a few years ago. And that still fell through. Most protest folks that participate won’t fight back since most are against baring arms and only want it to be via peace since they are too afraid to die for something. They will shift that fear on to their peers and react as well with “I don’t want to have people miss me” or “I don’t have the time to up and remove my life from what I’ve worked towards so far”

        • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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          29 days ago

          Ah yes, the CHOP zone arguing for zero police, that turned into a violent, crime riddled zone where the protesters eventually all left because, against all they believed in, without police crime runs rampant and they don’t like having their possessions destroyed/stolen, or being assaulted/killed.

          It was a wonderful example of how dumb most protesters are and how they don’t even understand the consequences of what they’re protesting for.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            29 days ago

            “FreedomAdvocate” the bootlicker. The definition of irony, if anyone needed it.

            • Bacano@lemmy.world
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              28 days ago

              Like how bills that goes away our rights tend to have names that sound like they expand them

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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      28 days ago

      People will forget about it all 2 months after it ends. They have the memory of a potato. Americans still praise NYT after the WMD lies.

      • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        28 days ago

        Americans thought NYT was a bastion of accuracy and non-bias until they accurately reported that Biden was having mental issues in office like Reagan.

        Those fake WMDs are so 2003, so it’s not important. Those graves are to be ignored.