Mayor Adams says 'outside agitators' are using campus protests to stir chaos — repeating a well-worn claim

Published Apr 23, 2024 at 4:38 p.m. ET

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Published Apr 23, 2024 at 4:38 p.m. ET

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Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday said “outside agitators” had infiltrated the protests occurring at Columbia University and NYU, and cited instances of protesters throwing bottles and chairs at NYPD officers outside NYU the night before.

Adams offered no credible proof that any significant number of outsiders had exploited the latest student-led demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war. Although some have accused provocateurs of instigating conflict in recent days, the mayor’s comments fit into a long history of public officials blaming outside groups for inciting violence during civil demonstrations.

“People who peacefully protest for an issue, they're not throwing bottles and chairs,” Adams said during his weekly press conference at City Hall, when asked about the campus protests. “There are people who come, they have nothing to do with an issue and they want to aggravate.”

Police said they arrested 120 people on Monday night after NYU officials called them to clear a student encampment in a plaza outside the university’s business school. Most were issued summonses for trespassing. Last week, police said they arrested 113 people during similar protests at Columbia on similar charges.

Of the 120 people police arrested at NYU on Monday, 116 were issued summonses for trespassing and four received desk appearance tickets that are set to appear on their criminal records as misdemeanors. None of those four people — ranging in age from 22 to 27 — had been arrested before in New York City, according to the NYPD.

Of the 113 people police arrested at Columbia last week, seven received desk appearance tickets, and the rest summonses. Five had no history of arrests in New York City, and one had a history of sealed arrests for low-level misdemeanors, according to the NYPD. The last person was arrested for assault and twice for resisting arrest in 2020, and had several sealed arrests for unlawful assembly, police said.

“This is a different energy that I’m seeing,” Adams said. “There was someone [who] wanted something to happen at that protest at NYU that police officers didn't respond to."

In 2020, city officials blamed anarchists for violence against police officers during the Black Lives Matter protests but never provided concrete evidence for the claim. An AP story that fall found most of those arrested across major U.S. cities at that time were not part of organized extremist groups.

At one point on Tuesday, Adams expressed suspicion over how the protesters at both Columbia and NYU appeared to have similar-looking tents for their encampments.

"Why is everybody's tent the same?” he said. “Was there a fire sale on these things?”

“There’s a well-concerted organizing effort,” he added.

Student protesters at both schools told Gothamist on Tuesday that they had organized or participated in student-led online fundraising efforts for supplies for their general operations and encampments. Posts on social media show student groups routinely soliciting donations.

The mayor previously said the NYPD would not make arrests on private university campuses without permission from university officials. In an interview on Monday, he said police would also intervene if there was an “imminent threat.”

Adams explained on Tuesday that such a threat could be someone starting a fire, assaulting a person, putting someone’s life in “imminent danger” or destroying property. When asked whether his administration would provide universities with the identities of any outside protesters deemed to have acted illegally, he said officials would “be as informative as possible without crossing a line.”

“If you’re not there for education, then why are you there?” he said. “[You] can’t be there for disruption.”

Adams met with Columbia’s President Minouche Shafik along with members of Congress on Tuesday, according to Ben Chang, a spokesperson for the school.

Ramsey Khalifeh and Brittany Kriegstein contributed reporting.

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Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]

Bahar Ostadan covers the NYPD and public safety. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or message Bahar on Signal at 646-740-7335.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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