Six of the more than 300 individuals arrested at Columbia University and City College during the NYPD’s operations Tuesday night to break up encampments at both locations have been identified by a law enforcement source as either “non-students, or students tied to outside influencers.”
The source provided information about the six arrested individuals as the NYPD and Mayor Eric Adams defend their assertions that “outside agitators” played a role in the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University and City College that began last month and culminated with protesters taking control of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall just after midnight on April 30. The siege went on for nearly a day before Columbia University’s administrators called the NYPD in to break up the encampment.
On Thursday evening, Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced that nearly 50% of the 282 people arrested at Columbia University and City College on April 30 were not students at either institution. Just 32 non-students were arrested at Columbia, while the remaining 80 were students. At City College, police arrested 102 non-students and 68 actual students.
One of the arrested individuals, per the law enforcement source, is James W. Carlson of Brooklyn, who was arrested for allegedly burning an Israeli flag near Columbia University’s campus on April 20. He was charged Tuesday with third-degree burglary with intent for allegedly participating in the Hamilton Hall siege.
Carlson, according to the law enforcement sources, is a “long-time figure in the anarchist world,” and was previously arrested in 2005 during violent protests coinciding with the G8 summit in San Francisco. Sources also said he was previously involved in recent bridge- and tunnel-blocking episodes involving pro-Palestine groups.
Other individuals arrested in connection with the Columbia University and City College protest breakups on April 30, as provided by the law enforcement source, are the following:
- Amelia Fuller was charged with third-degree burglary during the City College incident. Fuller had been previously arrested on Jan. 8 for her participation in a “sleeping dragon protest” on the Williamsburg Bridge, in which protesters handcuffed themselves within PVC pipes to prevent police officers from easily removing them. Fuller previously worked for the New York Botanical Garden, but was terminated back in December 2023 after allegedly saying in a viral video that she felt “proud” following the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel.
- Jacob Isaac Gabriel was charged with third-degree burglary during the City College incident. Fuller has numerous protest-related arrests on his record, including for his participation in the disruption of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 23, 2023.
- Rudy Ralph Martinez was charged with third-degree burglary during the City College incident. Martinez has numerous protest-related arrests dating back to California in 2012.
- Jesse Pape was charged with resisting arrest and assault during the City College incident, near the corner of 140th Street and Convent Avenue. Pape’s record includes four protest-related arrests since February, including an assault charge in which Pape allegedly “bonked” an NYPD Strategic Response Group officer in the head with a five-gallon water jug while trying to interrupt an arrest.
- Aidan Parisi, a Columbia student, was charged with third-degree burglary during the Hamilton Hall operation. Columbia University suspended Parisi in early April for his participation in a “Resistance 101” seminar offered by members of pro-Palestinian organizations including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
- Nora Fayad was charged with third-degree burglary during the City College incident. She was identified as the individual who declared in a viral video “we are Hamas” near the Columbia University protest earlier in April.
The NYPD, Mayor Adams and Columbia University have insisted that outside agitators played a role in stirring up the demonstrations there.
“There are those who are attempting to say that the majority of people there are students, you don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-opt an operation,” Mayor Adams said at a May 1 press conference. “There is a movement to radicalize young people. I’m not going to wait until it’s done, and all of a sudden acknowledge its existence.”
However, when asked to provide details on the “outside agitators” on Wednesday, both the mayor and the NYPD declined to do so, citing intelligence concerns.
“There are people that we have been watching and organizations that are not part of the campus,” Adams said. “We are not going to release any information that is too sensitive.”
Criticism over operation
Meanwhile, the NYPD released on Thursday new bodycam footage of officers during the Columbia University operation. Most of the footage showed officers breaking through doors locked with bike chains and/or barricaded with furniture.
Flash bangs were used at one point before officers confronted a group of protesters inside a building, their arms interlocked while chanting “Free Palestine.” While a couple of officers were shown pushing or shoving protesters aside, the footage provided did not show any signs of overly-violent confrontations.
The NYPD has faced public criticism from progressive officials who believe the operation was overkill. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams criticized Mayor Adams’ suggestion that the destruction of the encampment was a victory.
“There’s a victory lap happening. Whatever you feel about the last few weeks, we shouldn’t say that what we saw was a victory,” Williams said. “The framework is decisions that were made multiple times, with the seemingly eagerness of the mayor and the NYPD to end this the way that it ended.”
Queens City Council Member Tiffany Cabán went as far as to suggest that Columbia University administrators and “Mayor Adams’ NYPD” engaged in “authoritarian conduct” that served as “a horrifying affront to democracy and free speech, and an abject failure of public safety.”
Her strong statement prompted a strong retort from NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to call Cabán’s statement “garbage” and suggested it came “from a person who hates our city and certainly does not represent the great people of NYC.”
Chell has drawn criticism in recent weeks for publicly attacking reporters and others on X for criticism of NYPD policies.
