Police arrested 25 people at the City College of New York campus late last night, after what it called a series of violent incidents in recent days.
The arrests came as NYPD arrested almost 100 people at Columbia’s nearby Morningside Heights campus, after Hamilton Hall was occupied yesterday.
CCNY’s parent institution, the City University of New York, said in a statement that a large crowd marched from Columbia to CCNY. CUNY public safety staff arrested 25 people, but as the crowd grew in size administrators “made the difficult decision to request NYPD assistance,” it said.
Police arrived at 11.45 p.m. and made an unspecified number of further arrests.
“CUNY is committed to maintaining a safe environment for students, faculty and the entire City College campus community, which also includes two public high schools and a daycare center,” the statement said.
The college said that over the last six days, there had been a fire at the Marshak Science Building caused by a flare gun, as well as “clashes with the public.”
Last night also saw a break-in at the college’s administration building, where door windows were smashed, and an attempted break-in at Shepard Hall, the school said.
“Students have a right to demonstrate peacefully and exercise their First Amendment rights. Tuesday night’s actions were taken in response to specific and repeated acts of violence and vandalism, not in response to peaceful protest,” the statement said.
