New York Police Department officers said they found posters and leaflets with disturbing anti-American and anti-Israel messages, including calls for violence and death, while an anti-Israel protest encampment was being cleaned up at New York University and The New School.
Kaz Daughtry, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations, posted pictures of literature found “at the illegal encampment on @NYU property.” Among the items found, there was a poster with the messages: “Occupy the Occupiers,” “Disrupt/Reclaim/ Destroy,” “Long Live the Intifada,” “Death to Israeli Real Estate,” and “Death to America.”
Another poster was titled: “Enough with De-Escalation Trainings; Where are the Escalation Trainings!”
The @NYPDnews proudly protects everyone’s right to free speech and peaceful protest.
Here’s a look at just some of the inflammatory literature and signage we observed today at the illegal encampment on @NYU property:
“Enough with De-Escalation Trainings: Where are the… pic.twitter.com/Zo3hSF55rG
— NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 3, 2024
In an interview, Daughtry said the troubling findings in the anti-Israel encampments convince him that “there is somebody behind this movement.”
“There is some organization behind this movement,” he added. “The level of organization that we’re seeing in both of these encampments here and at Columbia — leaflets on how to protest, leaflets on how to commit civil disobedience, leaflets on what to do when you get arrested, leaflets on what to say to police when they ask you — there is somebody funding this. There is somebody radicalizing our students.”
"Somebody is radicalizing out students" Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz spoke after NYU and New School raid this morning, "we will find out who that is". Chief of Patrol John Chell showed literature found inside the New School 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' after it was… pic.twitter.com/LObfkp5Vmd
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 3, 2024
Daughtry promised that the NYPD’s counterterrorism division “will find out who it is.” The Deputy Commissioner of Operations also said there were disturbing items found at Columbia’s Hamilton Hall after officers removed anti-Israel protesters who had illegally taken over the building earlier this week. Daughtry said officers found “gas masks, ear plugs, helmets, goggles, tape, hammers, knives, ropes, and a book on TERRORISM” in Hamilton Hall.
Pencils, books, laptops, those are the tools of students and what you expect to find on a college campus. But here’s what the NYPD found in Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after we were able to arrest the protestors and agitators for commandeering and barricading themselves… pic.twitter.com/EKQV6nJySu
— NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 3, 2024
“These are not the tools of students protesting, these are the tools of agitators, of people who were working on something nefarious. Thankfully, your NYPD was able to prevent whatever they were planning and stop them before they could do it,” Daughtry added. “Continue to peacefully and lawfully protest; but know that if you engage in illegal conduct, the NYPD will hold you responsible and hold you accountable—someone has to.”
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The findings appear to back up statements made by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who said on Wednesday that the anti-Israel protest at Columbia has been influenced by “outside agitators” who appeared to be trained.