Nearly half of the protesters arrested at the Columbia University and City College campuses during violent anti-Israel unrest weren’t students, police sources said Thursday — a day after Mayor Eric Adams warned that “outside agitators” were radicalizing youngsters.
Of the 282 protesters cuffed and hauled away during a massive NYPD operation late Tuesday, 134 of them had zero affiliation with either school, according to law enforcement sources.
Hizzoner, who has repeatedly blamed this week’s on-campus chaos on professionals with a history of fueling non-peaceful protests, also touted the initial figures, saying more than 40% of the initial arrests were “outsiders.”
“What was given to me by my team, a preliminary review of the numbers, just the beginning process of analyzing, but it appears, though, that over 40% of those who participated in Columbia and CUNY were not from the school and they were outsiders,” Adams told NPR during a media blitz.
“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there,” the mayor insisted Wednesday. “They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training.
“This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York,” he added.
