NYPD Chief Hits Back at AOC over Columbia Anti-Israel Protests: ‘Self-Entitlement’ Doesn’t ‘Supersede the Law’

Left: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) attends a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., February 8, 2023. Right: NYPD Chief John Chell appears on NY1, April 3, 2024.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received pushback from NYPD officials on Thursday after she criticized Columbia University for having made “the horrific decision to mobilize NYPD on their own students” to end an anti-Israel encampment.

NYPD officers arrested 108 anti-Israel protesters on Columbia University’s campus last week after the university’s president asked law enforcement to step in and break up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

Ocasio-Cortez claimed the units called in to handle the situation “have some of the most violent reputation on the force.”

“NYPD had promised the city they wouldn’t deploy SRG [Strategic Response Group] to [the] protest,” she said.

NYPD Chief John Chell responded to the progressive lawmaker in a post on X saying, “Columbia decided to hold its students accountable to the laws of the school. I am sure you would agree that we have to teach them these valuable life skills.”

The students are “seeing the consequences of their actions,” he added, “Something these kids were most likely never taught.”

“Secondly, I was with those ‘units’ last Thursday that you describe as having, ‘the most violent reputations.’ These ‘units’ removed students with great care and professionalism, not a single incident was reported,” he added.

He went on to say that the “only incidents that day on campus were the student’s hateful anti-Semitic speech and vile language towards our cops.”

He underscored that “hate has no place in our society” and urged Ocasio-Cortez to “rethink your comments to a simple thank you to the NYPD.”

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry pushed back against the “Squad” member’s comment as well.

“Everyone has a Constitutional right to protest, it’s one of the pillars our great democracy is built on. But kids also have a right to go to school without being harassed, threatened, intimidated or assaulted,” Daughtry added.

“There is nothing ‘horrific’ about protecting the safety of Columbia’s young students who are just trying to go to school. We’ve said it time and time again, the NYPD will always protect and defend your right to protest but just because you hold a sign while you’re threatening, harassing, intimidating and assaulting people doesn’t give you a free pass from criminal conduct,” Daughtry added.

“Our officers are the best and most highly trained law enforcement professionals in the world,” he said. “Everyday, they have to endure insults, threats, and hate speech merely because the uniform they wear as they try to keep the peace and protect everyone’s rights.”

Columbia University Apartheid Divest organized the encampment and asked students to gather around the lawn to block police from entering. The group led chants calling for “intifada revolution” and for Hamas to “kill another soldier now.”

As police carried out arrests last week, a crowd of some 500 students looked on and shouted at officers. Officials said the students likened police to the Ku Klux Klan and told officers to go kill themselves.

Students left the encampment on Wednesday afternoon to shout down House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and four other House Republicans who held a press conference demanding Columbia president Minouche Shafik’s resignation.

“I am here today joining my colleagues in calling on president Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos,” Johnson said to a chorus of boos. “As speaker of the House, I’m committing today that the Congress will not be silent as Jewish students are expected to run for their lives and stay home from their classes, hiding in fear.”

Shafik first gave protesters a deadline of midnight on Tuesday to clear out, though she extended the deadline twice, to early Friday morning, after negotiations with the students stalled.

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