The NYPD has declined to prosecute numerous criminal summonses against demonstrators arrested across several New York City university campuses during pro-Palestinian demonstrations last month.
It’s unclear exactly how many summonses were cleared from the books over the past several weeks, though it’s likely in the hundreds. THE CITY spoke to several demonstrators who were told by attorneys their charges waived including people arrested at Columbia University on April 18, at New York University on April 22, at Columbia again on April 30, and the City University of New York’s City College that same night.
Despite the move, another 90 people facing misdemeanor and felony charges arrested at Columbia and City College inside barricaded buildings still have their cases pending before the courts, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
While NYPD’s attorneys act as prosecutors in summons court, the police department referred comment to the district attorney’s office, which in turn referred a request for comment back to the NYPD. New York criminal court sent out letters to some this month dated as early as May 2, informing them they didn’t have to return to court. The Office of Court Administration did not return multiple requests for comment on the dropped charges.
Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, which alongside a team of pro bono attorneys is representing demonstrators at Columbia, NYU, City College, Fordham University, Fashion Institute of Technology and the New School, declined to comment.
‘A Way to Intimidate Protesters’
Between April 18 and May 8, the NYPD arrested more than 600 people involved in demonstrations in and around college campuses in New York City opposing Israel’s war in Gaza. The vast majority of the demonstrators were hit with summonses for trespassing and other low-level offenses like walking in a roadway or obstructing governmental administration.
Students and faculty arrested at Columbia and City College on April 22 began to get word that their summonses had been dropped through attorneys this week, several told THE CITY. Some of those who’d been arrested in earlier raids at Columbia on April 18 and NYU on April 22 got letters from the state court system and through lawyers earlier this month.
“No charges stuck, so it really does just seem like NYU was using the NYPD as a way to intimidate protesters,” said Zach Samalin, an assistant professor of English who was visiting the student encampment with his family on the evening of April 22 when he was arrested and charged with trespassing and spent hours in jail.
Earlier this month, he received a letter in the mail from the Criminal Court of the City of New York notifying him the NYPD did not file necessary paperwork with the court to move ahead with the charge against him, and that he didn’t have to return to court.
“That’s been sort of vindicating,” he said.
Notices from attorneys informed others of the dropped summonses. Among those off the hook are about 60 demonstrators arrested the night of April 30 who linked arms outside Hamilton Hall on Columbia’s campus in an attempt to block police from entering the barricaded building demonstrators had occupied.
Allie Wong, a 38-year-old student organizer who is working on a PhD in communications, was among those arrested that evening. She said Friday she had been advised a day earlier by attorneys at Neighborhood Defender Service that she and the group of 60 didn’t have to go to court this week, according to messages from attorneys reviewed by THE CITY.
Wong said that while she is relieved the trespassing charge against her is no longer pending, it makes her feel even more suspicious about Columbia’s justification to deploy police to break up the campus demonstration in the first place.
“If there was legitimate concern, why not take this to court?” she asked. “Scrutinize it in a way that any alleged crime deserves to be scrutinized.”
While many charges appear to have now been waived, 46 people arrested inside Hamilton Hall still face charges that include criminal trespass in the third degree, a class B misdemeanor, and are due to return to court in June, court records show.
At City College, following a 15-minute occupation of an administrative building, 22 people arrested there still face burglary in the third degree charges, a class D felony, as well as obstructing governmental administration, among others, and are also due to return to court in June, according to court records and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
‘When You Cross Over That Line’
University leadership from Columbia to City College have faced blowback for the decision to involve the NYPD to tamp out campus protests, a move they justified citing safety concerns and vandalism. While the mayor and police touted officers’“professionalism” and “precision policing,” students have documented an array of injuries they say they suffered during the police crackdowns. The city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board is investigating complaints against 40 officers for their actions policing campus protests.
The apparent crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations continued in Bay Ridge this weekend, where an annual Nakba Day protest was met by a show of force from officers with the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, who advocates said beat and shoved demonstrators and arrested around 40 people including credentialed members of the press.
The controversial counterterrorism unit, widely condemned for its uses of force on demonstrators during the George Floyd protests of 2020, is supposed to be phased out of protest policing according to the terms of a new settlement agreement with the NYPD. As part of that agreement, the department is currently developing new policies towards protest policing that include a multi-tiered response in which the police are supposed to accommodate protests “whenever possible.”
Asked about that Tuesday, Adams said the city supported the agreement even as he expressed skepticism about the new system, which is expected to be rolled out in the coming months.
“When you spit in the face of a police officer, there is no tier,” he said.
“They didn’t stop everyone for protesting. They stopped those who went over the line. That is the difference,” Adams said of the Saturday protest, where all but four of the 41 people arrested were charged with low-level summonses and issued desk appearance tickets for disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. (Two were charged with second and third degree assault and another two were given tickets for reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.)
“We’re not going to wait until you harm someone,” Adams said. “When you cross over that line, there’s no tier to that.”