More than a dozen people were charged with disorderly conduct, trespassing and other offenses after police detained them Thursday during a pro-Palestinian protest at Brooklyn College, according to NYPD and school officials.
Videos and photos posted on social media show a few dozen demonstrators rallied with banners supporting Palestinian statehood, prayed and set up several tents on the Flatbush campus’s east quad Thursday afternoon. Scores of NYPD officers responded to the scene around 6 p.m., leading to some clashes between police and protesters, many of whom were wearing masks and keffiyehs.
The tussle came a day after police arrested 80 people at a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University’s campus in Morningside Heights, largely on charges of criminal trespassing. Masked demonstrators overtook the main library there, occupying a reading room during final-exam period, university and NYPD officials said.
That led the Trump administration to declare it was reviewing the visa statuses of the demonstrators, as federal officials continue to crack down on pro-Palestinian activism on school campuses and press for deportations, citing foreign-policy justifications — although those efforts face legal challenges.
At Brooklyn College, police said they took 14 people into custody after the protesters failed to comply with officers’ verbal warnings. Seven were arrested, while the other seven received summonses for lower-level offenses, an NYPD spokesperson said Friday.
Richard Pietras, a spokesperson for the CUNY school said Friday that the tents violated school 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,” he said in a prepared statement. “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.”
After the dispersal, organizers and supporters of the demonstration hailed the protesters’ actions and said they would continue to organize against the war in Gaza. Multiple CUNY campuses have been the site of pro-Palestinian demonstrations against the war, and the state launched an investigation into allegations of antisemitism within the school system that yielded a September 2024 report recommending various policy changes.
