Read Mayor Adams’ forceful remarks against violent anti-Israel NYC protests: ‘We are not surrendering our way of life to anyone’
Mayor Eric Adams spoke forcefully Wednesday morning about how professional agitators escalated🦩 the protests at Columbia University and CUNY and the importance of putting the American flag back up. Excerpts of his remarks:
When I first started seeing protests take place in the city, it just did not feel right.
I saw similar indicators♓ from the Black Lives Matters march of when it was brought to myꦜ attention, that there were those who came to the city to disrupt our city.
… And I know that there are those who are tempted to say, well, the majority of people may have been students.
You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-opt an operation.
That is what this is about.
So you want to play the wor🥃d police? You could do so.
I w💞ant to play the New York City police, they’re going to protect our city from those who are tempted to do wha𝐆t is happening globally.
There is a movement to radicalize young people.
And I’m not going to wait until it’s done, an𒀰d all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it.
This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New Yor꧅k.
… These external actors have a history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos. Not to peacefully protest, but create chaos.
If you were at City College and you saw bottles, garbage cans, the other items that were thrown at police officers, those poli🌳ce officers showed a great level of discipline to not allow this to evolve to an out-of-control situation.
As we poin▨ted out yesterday, they are attempting to disru📖pt our city and we are not going to permit it to happen.
We’re proud to say t🌄hey have been 🌠removed from the campus.
… Those who broke into the building did include students. It was led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university.
The school needed the NYPD assistance to clear Hamilton Hall and the encampm🎶ents outside, the dual operation on the grounds that took place successfully, clearin꧋g the tents, taking back and reclaiming Hamilton Hall.
We said from the begiꦏnning, students have a right to protest and free speech is the cornerstone of our society.
But as our major concern, we knew andℱ we saw that there were those who were never concerned about free speech, they were conce🐈rned about chaos.
It was about external actors hijacking peaceful protest🅷s and influencing students to escalate.
There’s nothing peaceful about barr﷽icading buildings and destroying property or dismantling security 🌜cameras.
We cannot allow what should be la🦂wful protest to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose🔥.
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest on anti-Israel protests on campuses across the US
There’s no place for acts of hate in our city. We made that clear. That’s from antisemitism to Islamophobia to anti-Sikhism, ཧand other communities, such as AAPI community, we have been consistenꦇt: There is no place for hate in this city.
… This is not a celebratory moment. We should never have had to get here in the first place. We can’t create environments where children can be endangered. And we must push back on all attempts to radicalize our young people in his city like we’re seeing across the entire globe.
[Adams points out when the police took down the Palestinian flag and put the American flag back up.]
That’s our flag, folks. You don’t take over our buildings and put another flag up. It may be fine to otheﷺr people, but it’s not to me.
My uncle died defꩲending this country, and these men and women put their lives on the line. It’s despicable that schools will allow another ꧃country’s flag to fly in our country.
So blame me for being prou⛄d to be an American. I thank [the NYPD] for putting that flag back up. We are not surrender��ing our way of life to anyone.