NYPD working with schools to develop protest response plans, sources say. This is their first rule.
NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD are helping schools develop plans to deal with university protests, sources say. It comes after police arrested hundreds of protesters at Columbia University and the City College of New York earlier this week.
CBS New York political reporter Marcia Kramer says you could call it a "no tents" policy.
NYPD working with schools on protest response plans, sources say
The NYPD says officers had to use metal cutters and brute strength to breach a forest of barricades, trash cans, bicycle locks and piles of furniture to clear protesters out of Hamilton Hall at Columbia on Tuesday night.
City sources tell CBS New York that to avoid a repeat performance, the NYPD has been working with dozens of schools and colleges to develop protest response plans.
They say rule number one is no encampments -- don't let the tents go up, and if they do, remove them quickly.
Adams says Columbia should have done that.
"You must have a zero tolerance. When the first tent went up, we should have removed it," he said.
Law enforcement sources tell CBS News the NYPD is closely monitoring social media for plans of flash gatherings at universities across the city.
Police were on hand Thursday for dueling demonstrations outside the New School in Greenwich Village, where a pro-Palestinian encampment sits inside.
Officials clarify number of "outside agitators" arrested at schools
As the mayor made a round of appearances to defend the arrest of nearly 300 people at Columbia and City College, a clearer picture of those taken into custody emerged, including people who officials identified as outside agitators.
Of the 112 people arrested at Columbia on Tuesday, police say 29% were not affiliated with the school.
Sources also tell CBS New York that weapons such as small pocket knives and bats were found scattered on the floor when NYPD officers swept Columbia's Hamilton Hall.
NYPD body camera video shows officers cutting through locks to breach Hamilton Hall on Columbia University's campus Tuesday night.
CBS New York has also learned one of those officers fired his gun during the raid. The Manhattan district attorney is investigating and says no students were in the immediate vicinity and no one was injured.
Police say 60% of those arrested at City College had no affiliation with that school.
"We saw a change in protest behavior when we saw destruction of property, taken-over buildings. We saw the patterns that these individuals that we identify are used to doing," Adams said.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden says of the nationwide university protests, order must prevail.
"There's the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos," he said Thursday.
