“If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard,” he said.
On Wednesday evening, a Columbia spokesperson said rumours that the university had threatened to bring in the National Guard were unfounded. “Our focus is to restore order, and if we can get there through dialogue, we will,” said Ben Chang, Columbia’s vice president for communications.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive New York democrat, hit out at the university for its threat to call in the NYPD on protesters who refused to disperse.
“Calling in police enforcement on non-violent demonstrations of young students on campus is an escalatory, reckless, and dangerous act,” she wrote in a post on X, formally Twitter.
“It represents a heinous failure of leadership that puts people’s lives at risk. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms”.
California students barricaded in building for third day
Also on Wednesday night, the University of Southern California declared its campus closed and asked the Los Angeles Police Department to clear a demonstration.
Police arrested students who surrendered to officers one by one, hours after campus police who took down an encampment were overwhelmed by protesters and requested LAPD help.
North of USC, students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, were barricaded inside a building for a third day, and the school shut down campus through the weekend and made classes virtual.
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