Prosecutors drop most charges against student protesters who occupied Columbia University building
NEW YORK — Dozens of Columbia University students arrested for… occupying a campus building as part of a pro-Palestinian protest, their criminal charges will be dropped, prosecutors said.
At a court hearing Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it would not pursue criminal charges against 31 of the 46 people initially arrested on charges of entering the administration building.
Students and their allies seized the building, known as Hamilton Hall, on April 30 and barricaded themselves with furniture and padlocks in a major escalation of campus protests against the war between Israel and Hamas.
At the request of university leaders, hundreds of New York Police Department officers stormed the campus the next night, gained access to the building through a second-floor window and made dozens of arrests.
During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors said they had dismissed charges against most of those arrested in the building, in part due to a lack of evidence linking them to specific acts of property damage and the fact that none of the students had criminal records .
Stephen Millan, an assistant district attorney, noted that the protesters wore masks and blocked surveillance cameras in the building, making it difficult to “prove that they participated in damaging Columbia University property or causing harm to whoever.”
All of these students continue to face disciplinary hearings and possible expulsion from the university.
Prosecutors said they would move forward with charges against one person involved in the building’s occupation, who is also accused of breaking an NYPD camera in a cell and burning an Israeli flag during a protest .
Thirteen others arrested in the building were offered deals that would have ultimately led to their charges being dropped, but they declined “in a show of solidarity with those facing the most extreme repression,” a statement said from Columbia University Apartheid Divest. a coalition group representing protesters. Of that group of arrestees, most were alumni, prosecutors said, although two were students.
Nine other suspects arrested for occupying another building at the City College of New York have also rejected proposed deals with prosecutors, according to the group. Prosecutors said Thursday they would drop charges against nine others involved in the City College occupation.
Questions to a lawyer representing many of the arrested protesters were not answered.
The construction occupations followed one tent camp at Columbia University that inspired a wave of similar demonstrations on college campuses across the country.
In Columbia, the group representing protesters called on the government to cut ties with Israel and grant amnesty to demonstrators, vowing that demonstrations would continue “throughout the summer and beyond.”