A column of NYPD officers marches across the intersection of Broadway and West 116th Street, directly outside Columbia University’s main gates, on the afternoon of April 18, 2024. Metal crowd-control barricades line the perimeter as onlookers, students, and members of the press watch from the sidewalk near Miller Theatre and the steps leading up to campus.
NYPD officers cross Broadway at W 116th Street outside Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus. Barricades separate crowds from the roadway as buses and police vehicles stage in the background. April 18, 2024.
Hundreds of students mass on the lawn in front of Butler Library earlier that day, the names of Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and others inscribed on the facade above them. A Palestinian flag rises from the crowd. April 18, 2024.
The deployment came hours after Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik authorized the NYPD to enter the Morningside Heights campus and dismantle the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which students had erected on the East Butler Lawn the previous day. More than 100 protesters were arrested on trespassing charges — the first time the university had called police to suppress a campus demonstration since the anti-Vietnam War protests of 1968.
An NYPD community affairs officer in a blue jacket raises his arm to direct foot traffic near campus as police transport buses idle behind him. Students with backpacks crowd the sidewalk. April 18, 2024.
Shafik had testified before a congressional committee that same week, facing sharp questioning about antisemitism on campus. The encampment was established while she was still in Washington. By Thursday afternoon, officers in helmets and tactical gear were crossing Broadway in formation as protest signs, including one reading “Columbia for Palestine,” were visible among the crowd gathered along the campus edge.
Counter-protesters carrying Israeli and American flags gather on the south lawn as pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupy the area closer to Butler Library. The two groups share the same campus green under an overcast sky. April 18, 2024.
The arrests did not end the movement. Within days, students rebuilt the encampment on the adjacent West Butler Lawn, and solidarity encampments spread to more than 180 universities worldwide. On April 30, protesters would occupy Hamilton Hall before a second NYPD operation cleared the building overnight.