Jewish NYC City Council Member Arrested for Carrying a Gun at a Pro-Palestine Demonstration Calls for ‘HEADS TO ROLL’ After Students Forced to Lock Themselves in the Library as Protesters Bang on the Doors
The Jewish NYC city council member who was arrested for carrying a gun around her waist while opposing a pro-Palestinian rally has called for ‘HEADS TO ROLL’ at Cooper Union following an incident involving Jewish students during a protest in the library were barricaded.
Inna Vernikov, a Republican who represents a large number of Orthodox Jewish voters in the city’s 48th District, targeted Cooper Union Thursday morning after a terrifying incident occurred at the private institution on Wednesday.
A group of Jewish students were forced to flee from a baying mob that chased them after they allegedly staged counter-protests. The pro-Israeli students were forced to lock themselves in the library, while pro-Palestinian demonstrators pounded on the doors mercilessly.
No arrests were made and no one was injured Wednesday evening. The Jewish students were eventually able to walk out of the building.
Vernikov wrote in a lengthy X-thread that the protest should have taken place outside the school on public property. But the pro-Palestinian group was not stopped as they entered one of the school buildings.
She pointed out that this protest, which led to the direct terror of Jewish students, was rebuked by the school’s teachers, who “cancelled class due to the strike” and “encouraged students to participate.”
Some, she said, even offered extra credit to those who attended the out-of-control rally. Others took part in the protest themselves.
As of Thursday morning, the small school, which grants degrees in engineering, art and architecture, had not yet issued a statement assuring its Jewish students that they would be able to return to campus safely.
Later Thursday afternoon, a lawyer representing the school’s Jewish students issued a statement in support of those who were chased into the library — but was shouted down by a pro-Palestinian student who called his account of events “fake news,” while other spectators responded. with boos and jeers.
“These students are AFRAID to come to school today and many of them will STAY HOME,” Vernikov wrote on X in the run-up to the lawyer’s press conference.
Some students, she said, “have dropped classes.” The students who got stuck in the library “are traumatized and said they will ‘never walk in there feeling good again.’
“This is a terrible dereliction of duty on behalf of Cooper Union to protest its Jewish students for physical harm, a failure to provide them with a safe space, and the university must be held accountable for creating a HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT,” the outraged representative wrote . . ‘HEADS MUST ROLL.’
A statement from the school in the aftermath of the event said: “The library was closed for approximately 20 minutes while student demonstrators moved through our building.”
The New York Police Department said community affairs officers were present during the demonstration, which was attended by about 90 people.
‘The school staff allowed the demonstration to take place. After the incident, the students dispersed. “No property damage was reported, no criminal reports were filed, and no threats of physical violence were made,” the department said in a statement.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, who has positioned himself as staunchly pro-Israel during this conflict, said his office had “been in contact with NYPD and Cooper Union leadership regarding the situation unfolding on campus.”
He said the NYPD was on site and coordinated with school security throughout the event, “to ensure no one was injured.”
A pro-Palestinian mob is seen storming past a guard on Wednesday, shouting: ‘Free, free Palestine’
Cooper Union, on Astor Place in Manhattan’s East Village, was rocked by a pro-Palestinian protest on Wednesday
Vernikov, herself a Jew, expressed her outrage at the school on behalf of her Jewish students. Since the terrorist attacks on October 7, Hamas has consistently spoken out against anti-Semitism.
Shortly after the attacks, she was arrested for carrying a gun around her waist while opposing a pro-Palestinian rally at CUNY’s Brooklyn College.
She turned herself in to the NYPD after her appearance at the school’s Flatbush campus, where hundreds of people gathered to support the Palestinian cause after Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 Israelis.
Vernikov, 39, was released with a ticket and ordered to surrender her gun, a Smith & Wesson 9 millimeter, as well as her concealed carry permit, which she had just obtained last month.
Although she had a permit, it is a Class E misdemeanor to bring a weapon onto a protest or school site, which are considered “sensitive locations.”
Republican Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov was arrested after carrying a gun around her waist while attending a pro-Palestinian rally at CUNY’s Brooklyn College earlier this month.
“I’m here at the pro-Hamas rally at the university in Brooklyn. There are a lot of police and we made the Jewish students feel safe today, but here they are shouting and screaming: ‘Intifada, globalize the Intifida!’ Vernikov said on a video of the protest on X.
“If you stand here today with these people, without the bombs you are nothing less than a terrorist,” she added.
Vernikov represents Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay and nearby neighborhoods, and is a member of the Council’s Standards and Ethics Committee.
The CUNY4Palestine their allies.
“These are the tactics of violence and intimidation used by Zionist groups to silence any support for Palestine.”