Category: Columbia University

Columbia University Custodian Defends Academic Building From Anti-Israel Mob

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/05/columbia-university-custodian-defends-academic-building-from-anti-israel-mob; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Mario Torres is a custodian at Columbia who tried to stop anti-Israel protesters from taking over Hamilton Hall, where he worked. A photograph of Torres pushing a “student” demonstrator up against a wall has gone viral; that “student” turned out to be a 40-year-old rich kid with no connection to Columbia. More on the custodians and the mob getting in the way of his work can be found here: “Exclusive: Columbia Custodian Trapped by ‘Angry Mob’ Speaks Out,” by Francesca Block, The Free Press, May 6, 2024:

This viral image captured the clash between anti-Israel protesters who stormed Columbia and campus workers who tried to stop them. As the mob invaded Hamilton Hall in the early hours of April 30, a facility worker was photographed pushing a demonstrator against a wall. 

Later, it emerged that the protester was a 40-year-old trust fund kid named James Carlson, who owns a townhouse in Brooklyn worth $2.3 million. The man who tried to hold him back was Mario Torres, 45, who has worked at Columbia—where the average janitor makes less than $19 an hour—for five years.

Now, in an exclusive interview with The Free Press, Mario Torres describes the experience of being on duty as protesters stormed the building in the early hours of the morning, breaking glass and barricading the entrances. “We don’t expect to go to work and get swarmed by an angry mob with rope and duct tape and masks and gloves,” he said.

“They came from both sides of the staircases. They came through the elevators and they were just rushing. It was just like they had a plan.” Mario said protesters with zip ties, duct tape, and masks “just multiplied and multiplied.”

At one point, he remembers “looking up and I noticed the cameras are covered.” It made him think: “This was definitely planned.”

There was nothing spontaneous about the takeover of Hamilton Hall. The pro-Hamas demonstrators came prepared with zip ties and duct tape to be used on any employees in the building attempting to prevent their assault, and with masks to hide their identity, and just to make sure they would not be identified, they had quickly managed to cover all the CCTV cameras in the building.

Torres was trying to “protect the building” when he ended up in an altercation with Carlson: “He had a Columbia hoodie on, and I managed to rip that hoodie off of him and expose his face.” (Carlson was later charged with five felonies, including burglary and reckless endangerment.) “I was freaking out. At that point, I was thinking about my family. How was I gonna get out? Through the window?”…

About half of the demonstrators at Columbia who have so far been arrested have turned out not to be Columbia students at all, but outside agitators, determined to swell the ranks of the mob in Morningside Heights. Torres managed to push one of the protesters against the wall and pulled away his face-concealing hoodie. That “student” was discovered to be James Carlson, 40-years-old man who had nothing to do with Columbia, but was eager to participate in any anti-Israel pro-Hamas demonstration that might be in progress. Torres wasn’t having any of the disruption. He wanted to do his job as custodian. Having pushed back against the mob, he now worries about whether, for opposing the law-breakers and defending Hamilton Hall, he might be in trouble with the pusillanimous administrators who had been so reluctant to arrest the demonstrators holding the building hostage.

Mario Torres should be asked to appear on news programs such as the “Hero of Hamilton Hall,” a Hispanic male version of Barbara Frietchie, protecting university property from the frenzied hate-animated mob. He needn’t worry about losing his job; Columbia’s trustees and alumni, and the wider public, too, wouldn’t stand for it. In fact, he’s due for a raise, for defending his building against those who, according to plan, smashed its windows and doors, and were preparing to do even more damage once inside. Fortunately, the Columbia administration finally called in the NYPD, which cleared Hamilton Hall in a five-hour operation. The cost to the NYPD was $200,000, One hopes that the City of New York will be able to recover that amount from fines leveled on hundreds of demonstrators.

Introducing James Carlson, 40-Year-Old Professional Agitator and One of Columbia’s ‘Student Protesters’

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/05/introducing-james-carlson-40-year-old-professional-agitator-and-one-of-columbias-student-protesters; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Between one-third and one-half of those “students” taking part at Columbia in the frenzied mob protests against Israel and for Hamas turn out not to be students at all, but older people, some of them professional left-wing agitators with long records of fomenting violence., and always eager to join any group of troublemakers willing to “stick it to the man.” Most often, nowadays the “man” in question is the “apartheid, settler-colonial, genocidal state” of Israel. More on James Carlson can be found here: “‘Violent’ Columbia protester is heir to the ad empire, has mansion, model babymama — and long rap sheet,” by Tina Moore, Chris Harris and Matthew Sedacca, New York Post, May 4, 2024:

One of the most violent leaders of the Columbia University riots is allegedly a professional agitator and limousine liberal — the scion of millionaire ad execs who owns in a $3.4 million Brooklyn townhouse, has a model babymama and a stepmom dating John Cougar Mellencamp.

James Carlson, aka Cody Carlson, aka Cody Tarlow, is “a longtime anarchist,” a high-ranking police source said.

He bought his 2,893-square-foot, three-story townhouse with four wood-burning fireplaces and a carriage house in Park Slope in 2019 for $2.3 million, according to property records and online listings….

Carlson is a trust-fund baby, living large with a likely net worth — extrapolating from the value of his house — of at least ten million dollars. He doesn’t need a job, so why should he work? Instead, what fun it is for him to join whatever group is now causing the most mayhem and mischief. It gives him something to do, and allows him to believe that his life has a point after all — he is a true revolutionary, making the world a better place by whipping up others in whatever mob he has joined. In the present disarray, those “others” whom he eggs on are students at Columbia.

Carlson is a rabble rouser and an attorney by trade, according to sources.

He is certainly a rabble-rouser, but he will likely not be an “attorney by trade” much longer. He is almost certain to be disbarred after being arrested for taking part in the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall.

He is being looked at as a “possible leader” of the anti-Israel protesters who broke into Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall Tuesday night and barricaded themselves inside, a City Hall source said.

Emergency Services Unit cops used a military-style truck to get inside and arrested the rioters, including Carlson, early Wednesday morning. 

He was charged with burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, conspiracy and criminal trespassing.

If he is convicted of even one of these charges, Carlson will be disbarred. But he doesn’t care; he has plenty to live on, thanks to his indulgent parents, without having to suffer the indignity of going to an office and working for a living.

“I observed the defendant inside the location with several other individuals,” a police officer wrote in the arrest report. “I did observe doors with shattered windows, doors off hinges, broken desks and exits blockaded by piled-up chairs.”

Carlson destroyed a camera inside a holding cell at One Police Plaza while he was in custody around 1 a.m., police sources said….

He can’t help himself. Carlson appears to be possessed by an obsessive will to destroy.

Carlson was among the anti-Israel protesters in January who wreaked havoc on the city by blocking traffic at the Holland Tunnel as well as the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, a source said.

His rap sheet dates back to at least 2005, when he was charged in San Francisco for participating in the violent “West Coast Anti-Capitalist Mobilization and March Against the G8,” where protesters cracked a police officer’s skull, nearly killing him, and attempted to set a police cruiser ablaze, according to a City Hall source and news reports.

Carlson was charged at the time with suspicion of attempted lynching, malicious mischief, battery on a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and willful resistance to a police officer that resulted in serious bodily injury, according to the source.

The charges were dropped in 2007, CNN reported.

Carlson is a serial menace, a violent man who joins whatever group is likely to provide him with the most convenient outlet for his violence and left-wingery. In 2005, he was engaged in “Anti-Capitalist Mobilization” (though the money he gets from his parents comes from their success in the capitalist advertising rat-race), and was charged with “attempted lynching, malicious mischief, battery to a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon.” Wasn’t all that enough to keep him in jail for a very long time? Apparently not. Nor was he in the least chastened by that experience. His latest display of mayhem in Morningside Heights, including his leading assault on Hamilton Hall, is evidence of that.

Carlson has no known links to Columbia University. About 30% of those busted in the Hamilton Hall takeover were outside agitators, according to Columbia and Mayor Adams.

It is estimated that on the 43 American campuses where anti-Israel pro-Hamas demonstrations have so far taken place, between 30% and 50% of those taking part have no connection to the universities they are subject to such mayhem. The word is out: if you want to have fun chanting at the top of your lungs, destroying property, harassing Jewish students, this is your chance. James Carlson can say, just like the corrupt politician of Tammany Hall fame, George Washington Plunkitt, that “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.” Carlson will come out for any cause that will provide him with the virtue-signalling opportunity for the violent expression of his predictable left-wing views." Anti-capitalism in 2005, anti-Israel and pro-Hamas in 2024, and just as soon as he is let out of prison for his latest offenses, James Carlson will no doubt be found leading a group taking over and ransacking the offices of fossil fuel companies, as their way – the least convincing way — to protest global warming.

Biden Regime’s Department of Education Sues Columbia University

But not for what you’d expect.

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SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-regimes-department-of-education-sues-columbia-university/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Order a copy of Robert Spencer’s forthcoming book, "Muhammad: A Critical Biography", by clicking here.]

After anti-Israel mobs rioted at Columbia University, broke into an academic building, and menaced Jewish students, it’s not surprising that the Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation of the university. Clearly, the rights of many Jewish and pro-Israel students have been trampled, and so it’s reassuring to see education bureaucrats acting to restore some sanity and decency at Columbia.

The only problem is that they’re not doing that. Instead, the Biden regime’s Department of Education is only making things worse. Its civil rights investigation is not about the mistreatment of Jewish students, but of Palestinian students.

Yes, we have really entered bizarro world, and everything is upside down. USA Today reported Friday that “the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on Thursday opened an investigation into Columbia University for how it’s treated Palestinian students and allies, lawyers said.” The Biden apparatchiks have filed a complaint that “alleges unequal treatment by Columbia administrators, including President Minouche Shafik.”

Remember, this is the same Minouche Shafik, about whom the Washington Post reported Friday that “several Republican lawmakers have accused her of not taking rapid action against protesters and not doing enough to make Jewish students feel safe on campus.” Yet as far as the Biden regime’s Department of Education is concerned, it isn’t the Jewish students who feel unsafe. USA Today continues: “Four students and the student organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, told federal officials they experienced harassment, death threats and doxing on campus since the start of the war, according to the complaint filed by Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization.”

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, this is what has really been happening at Columbia University. At the end of April, pro-Hamas thugs assaulted a Jewish student. This took place as pro-Hamas protestors, many from outside the university, shattered the glass of the university’s main building and occupied it.

All that happened months after Columbia administrators met with a student, Khymani James, and heard him speak openly about murdering Jews. Not only did they opt not to expel him and allow him to remain on campus, but they watched as he became the leader of the encampment protests. Then he issued a video in which he said: “Be glad — be grateful — that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists." I’ve never murdered anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way.”

Back in the Education Department’s bizarro world, however, Radhika Sainath of Palestine Legal claimed that “for months, Columbia has not only failed to take action to protect Palestinian students and their allies speaking out for Palestinian freedom from racist harassment and discrimination, but actively engaged in differential treatment. This investigation could not have come at a better time, as we just saw Columbia escalate its crackdown against Palestinian students and their allies by bringing in the NYPD to brutally arrest student protesters for the second time in less than two weeks.”

This civil rights complaint couldn’t possibly be more absurd. In pursuing it, the Biden regime once again demonstrates its true colors and deep hatred of Israel. Are Jewish students breaking into and trashing university buildings? Are Jewish students assaulting Palestinian Arab students?

There is abundant justification for a civil rights investigation of how Jewish students are being treated at Columbia, but the Students for Justice in Palestine and Palestine Legal know how to play the game: they know that victimhood is a coveted status in our sick society, and that consequently, being the first or loudest to claim that status is a quick pathway to preferential treatment and even pecuniary reward.

It’s also useful to recall that Students for Justice in Palestine is the brainchild of a professor of “Islamophobia” named Hatem Bazian, who has openly called for an intifada, a violent uprising, not in Israel only, but in the United States as well. And regarding supporters of Israel, he has declared, “We need to harass them.”

Yet it is his group, not the people that members of his group frequently harass on campuses, that is the object of the Department of Education’s efforts. This entirely ridiculous charade is a prime example of how our academic institutions have lost their way, deserve no public funding, and are in severe, cryptic need of reform.

What has happened of late at Columbia illustrates that anew. But also in radical need of reform is the Washington bureaucracy. Instead of acting against the pro-Hamas thuggery at Columbia and other campuses, the Biden regime is aiding and abetting it.

Columbia Offers to Surrender to Jihad Terror Supporters

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/05/columbia-offers-to-surrender-to-jihad-terror-supporters; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

“The University offered to consider new proposals on divestment and shareholder activism”

Columbia University (to no one’s surprise) is going the way of Northwestern, and offering the terror supporters rampaging across its campus a deal.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik published a letter to students today (Wednesday) following the removal of the anti-Israel protesters who took over Hamilton Hall on Tuesday morning and were removed by police on Tuesday night in which she revealed that the university administration had been willing to consider the protesters’ demands, including divestment from Israel.

Shafik said that during talks between the administration and protesters, “the University offered to consider new proposals on divestment and shareholder activism, to review access to our dual degree programs and global centers, to reaffirm our commitment to free speech, and to launch educational and health programs in Gaza and the West Bank. Some other universities have reached agreement on similar proposals.”

Despite the violence, hate, and calls for the murder of Jews displayed at the anti-Israel protests on the Columbia campus over the last two weeks, Shafik said that the protesters “are also fighting for an important cause, for the rights of Palestinians and against the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. They have many supporters in our community and have a right to express their views and engage in peaceful protest.”

She added, “We also must continue with urgency our ongoing dialogue on the important issues that have been raised in recent months, especially the balance between free speech and discrimination and the role of a university in contributing to better outcomes in the Middle East.”

Hardly surprising.

After all, Hamas supporters are negotiating with their own political allies, after all. They know the university won’t do anything to them and that the more they escalate, the more concessions they win.

In this case, the concessions will include funding for “humanitarian aid programs” in terror areas, which will amount to funding for terrorism, and to provide more options for boycotting Israel.

Hamas supporters negotiate just as Hamas does. And Columbia U is playing the local version of the Biden administration.