Angry protesters at NYU’s anti-Israel demonstration pelted NYPD officers with bottles as they raided the demonstration late Monday – with someone even bashing a cop’s helmet with a chair, a top department official said.
The NYPD moved onto the Greenwich Village campus, with permission from the university, when the camped-out group failed to disperse from Gould Plaza around 4 p.m., Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry told WABC Tuesday morning.
Community Affairs cops made the first attempt, before the department’s Strategic Response Group filed in, Daughtry said.
Some members of the crowd “chose violence” and whacked the responding cops with bottles, with one hitting a cop on his helmet with a chair, the police official tweeted, alongside a photo of the mark the blow left on the hardhat.
That person has not yet been caught, the NYPD official said.
“As you can see, our officers were professional,” Daughtry said. “Looks like they’re getting hurt with bottles, chairs, and so the individual that threw the chair at the officer, we are doing a video compilation, and we’re gonna find you, we’re gonna arrest you for attempted assault. You’re gonna have the full weight of Police Commissioner Caban’s police department coming for you.”
A total of 120 people were taken into custody at the private university Monday — with 116 of them slapped with summonses for trespassing and four getting desk appearance tickets for charges that included resisting arrest.
None of the charges are of a level that will result in a criminal record.
The faculty members who participated in the demonstration were the “most aggressive,” Daughtry said.
“When we went through the back of the campus, the faculty was lined up from arm to arm,” he said. “And they were the most, from my perspective, and from talking to the supervisors on the scene, they were the most aggressive and they were the most resistant when it came to trying to clear that plaza.”
“Professional agitators” were also present, working to “rouse up the mob mentality” at the demonstration, Daughtry said.
