Anti-Israel agitators brawl with cops at Brooklyn College after setting up tent encampment, disrupting exams
Anti-Israel agitators brawled with cops at Brooklyn College Thursday after they set up a tent encampment and disrupted final exams — with one officer being forced to fire a Taser to subdue a violent protester.
The chaos erupted when the NYPD descended on the Bedford Avenue campus – at the request of the CUNY college — around 4:50 p.m., where they found the demonstrators “occupying and trespassing on school grounds.”
At least 14 people were taken into custody during the melee, the NYPD said.
Video from the wild scene shows an officer using a megaphone to warn the demonstrators to “disperse immediately” or “face arrest,” as defiant protesters bellow, “Free Palestine!”
Another clip then shows officers wrestling a man before unleashing a Taser on him.
“Let him go! You are hurting him!” someone could be heard yelling in the crowd.
A woman could also be seen recording the tense altercations on a cell phone in one hand as she held a toddler boy in the other arm.
She screamed at the cops to stop and that the protesters were standing for “human rights.”
Meanwhile, an officer was heard yelling at the woman to “get that baby out of here now!”
The NYPD confirmed that more than a dozen were taken into custody at the protest – seven of them formally arrested and seven more released with summonses.
The fracas erupted as students were trying to study for finals.
In a statement, a college spokesperson said that the protesters “erected tents on the Brooklyn College quad in violation of college policy.”
“After multiple warnings to take the tents down and disperse, members of CUNY Public Safety and NYPD removed the tents and dispersed the crowd,” the spokesman said. “The safety of our campus community will always be paramount, and Brooklyn College respects the right to protest while also adhering to strict rules meant to ensure the safe operation of our University and prohibit individuals from impeding access to educational facilities.”
“Brooklyn College remains dedicated to fostering a respectful space for all voices to be heard in accordance with CUNY policy.”
The pandemonium erupted a day after dozens of anti-Israel rabble-rousers protesting inside Columbia University’s Butler Library were hauled out by NYPD cops Wednesday.
Eighty of those protesters were taken into custody, with 78 of them formally arrested and slapped with desk appearance tickets, police said.
Two received summonses and were released.
