Police Raid New School, Arrest Students, Occupation So Over

[UPDATE BELOW] Well, that was short and sweet, and everybody gets out of here in time for lunch! Except for the protesters, who were promptly arrested in an efficient, well-organized raid. Because the students had been threatening to "shut down" the New School since April 1st, the fuzz had plenty of time to prepare, and Bob Kerrey wasn't about to let this thing turn into a prolonged media circus like the last one.

It all happened so fast that by the time we realized the student occupiers were, in fact, live-blogging their sit-in, the building was reportedly filling with tear gas. According to this penultimate post on the "New School Reoccupied" blog, "PEOPLE OCCUPYING THIS WHOLE MOTHERFUCKER ARE NOW BEING ARRESTED!!! It took the pigs and new school authorities pepper spray, tear gas, and beating up some bystanders outside." NYPD spokesman Paul Browne tells City Room, "Reports that the police used tear gas or mace are false."

NY1 reports that police have arrested 19 out of the estimated 60 students who occupied the building. It's unclear what happened to the other 40 or so protesters, but let's not rule out a second occupation-within-the-occupation behind a false wall somewhere in the building, ala Inside Man. Or maybe they came prepared with fake NYPD uniforms and blended in during the raid? Who knows—according to the blog there's a solidarity rally now at the 6th Precinct (233 West 10th Street): "Let’s get them free!!! NOW NOW NOW Until every last one is out!"

UPDATE: New School president Bob Kerrey has sent the following e-mail, pasted below, to the students and faculty:

"A Note to the Community

"On December 15, 2008, an unofficial student organization calling themselves the New School in Exile occupied the cafeteria at 65 Fifth Avenue, barricaded themselves into the room, and issued a set of demands. Early on the morning of December 16, a group of students and non-students broke through a fire exit on 14th street and entered the building.

"Although the occupants had violated a number of important security rules, the university made the judgment they were neither an operational or a security risk. Accordingly, we did not file a complaint with the New York Police Department to have the occupants removed. Instead we entered into a process of negotiations with our students and reached agreement on a list of demands including amnesty for all involved early on the morning of December 17. The students left peacefully at that time.

"In January, this same unofficial student organization issued a public threat to forcefully shut down the university on April 1 unless the President and Chief Operating Officer were removed. Following this they were caught stealing an entire edition of the student newspaper on account of a story they regarded as unfavorable to them; and subsequently they vandalized the university's presidential residence.

"During this time the university has allowed and accommodated every peaceful protest, teach-in, and demonstration. We have enforced our rules governing such events in such a way as to permit protests, so long as they don't endanger the safety of other members of the community or destruction of property.

"This morning's illegal occupation of 65 Fifth Avenue was joined by a number of New School in Exile students as well as individuals without any affiliation to The New School. Their claim that this was a simple political protest is false. Their entry into this building was forced, they removed a man who was cleaning the building, took his phone, injured a security officer, and did physical damage to the building.

"Accordingly, in this case the university asked the New York Police Department to remove and arrest those who were trespassing on our property. We suspended, pending administrative review, all New School students who were a part of this action.

"The New School prides itself on civic engagement. We have been and will continue to be a refuge for open and critical political debate. Students and faculty who choose to peacefully and passionately oppose the policies of the university will have their rights to do so protected as strongly as we protect our right to safely and securely operate our university."

President Bob Kerrey

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on April 10, 2009 12:35 PM

Comments [rss]

lizzo

Wow so I'm a student at the New School and also work in an office there (an office COMPLETELY unrelated to the incident) and I just got a call from a parent of a prospective student saying how outraged he was, that his kid was definitely not coming here next year, and asking for the number of the president's office (which I couldn't find!).

For those who think this was a disorganized, childish protest...looks like it accomplished EXACTLY what it was aiming for, and the fool was Kerrey for trying to show his unrelenting authority.

theevilone

One less pansy douchebag moving to NY, yay!

Stewart

I would think that the parent was upset by the notion of paying $30M to send his/her kid to school with these bozo students rather than being upset with the tactics used to deal with the anarchists.

jaycjay

"got a call from a parent of a prospective student saying how outraged he was, that his kid was definitely not coming here next year"

Fair decision. So what would that call accomplish? Do you know it was parent and not someone supporting the protesters pretending to be a parent?

ohgoodgolly

Yeah, the problem is I think it's safe to assume most parents are disgusted with the action of the students, not the president himself. So I guess if acting like a bunch of stupid assholes kinda gets your point across in an extremely roundabout way, it's worth it?

FrankMartin

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/?hp

check out the video, NYPD at their least. Check the tall cop with a helmet in his hand. He goes to punch a kid yelling "shame on you". I mean goes out of his way to walk over to the kid. After he goes to the ground the cop walks away, but quickly realizes I better arrest this kids ASAP.

Dude69

LOL, that kid screamed like a pansy when the big cop barely touched him. I feel bad for their parents who forked over 30K for nothing but suspension letters, and their brats moving back in with them.

FrankMartin

That is the tough part of this, the lack of sympathy. But I gotta say the cop was out of line. And will be in deep shit.

As far as screaming like a pansy goes, you ever been in that siutation. Pansy can come very naturally.

Maybe if eh was on a bike there would be more sympathy

Dude69

Nope, no sympathy whatsoever. I didn't think the NYPD was tough enough on them either, and why the hell would I ever put myself in that situation. There are a lot more productive and effective ways of getting things done.

brumyr

As one who well recalls doing some things along the same lines (tho not occupying a college building) 40 years ago, my main comment is: no one is more certain of his/her absolute moral superiority and political sophistication than a 20-year-old college student, and this is magnified when a self-conscious group of them gets together.

For certain individuals, college offers the perfect opportunity to get back at the world for imposing rules (like "play nice with others") on them in kindergarten.

As for anarchists, I've never understood how they manage to be so well-organized in their opposition to organization. I've always thought of organized anarchists and organized atheists as being cut from the same, oxymoronic cloth. (Disclosure: I am an atheist.)

PS - I love the comment above re how supposed anarchists would do if they actually won and found themselves facing heavily armed survivalists.

Felix Hoenikker

PS - I love the comment above re how supposed anarchists would do if they actually won and found themselves facing heavily armed survivalists.

That's easy. They'd be the guy on the left here:

http://www.madmaxmovies.com/making/madmax2/images/MundiMundi/WezFaceoff.jpg

eyekantspel

the only surprising thing here is that cops got the green light to do something. If this happened more often, protesters would probably learn to save their occupations for something that really mattered.

Radtard

Those fucking pretentious smelly hippy Eugene Lang students give a bad image for the rest of the hardworking, dedicated students of the new school. It was an embarrassment to be associated with them in anyway.

While the were busy doing their little sit in you could find the students of all the other schools with in the New School slaving away at the labs getting actual work done.

90% (this is my own exaggerated statistic but just go around the campus and ask) of the Lang Students major in "Arts in Context" Which means what? Exactly, bullshit. The study neither "art" nor the proper "contexts" in which it is created.

annabella

I'm a graduate student at The New School and have nothing to do with the group who did this.

Bob Kerry is not someone I like being president of my school. While I like the school within the New School that I actually attend, there's a lot I don't like about the rest of the school and Bob Kerry is only one of several people I think either need to change or leave.

However, I do not support the people who occupied 65 5th Avenue today. I think they focus on the wrong things and use the wrong methods and that, in doing so, they make the rest of the school look bad. My program is very dependent on outside relationships for a crucial part of the curriculum, so this poses legitimate issues.

Additionally, as a result of their actions, an important meeting with my classmates, regarding an important project that involves assisting an outside entity, was severly disrupted. One of our members who works full time came to campus on his lunch break to attend this meeting. That's not fair to him, us or the entity (who was not present at the meeting) and, honestly, I think what we were doing is important than what they were doing.

I hope that if the police did anything wrong, they're held accountable, and I hope Bob Kerrey and a few other people leave and are replaced with better people. However, acting like rebels without a clue is not the way to get that done.

valeriob

Oops! I bet they didn't expect that to happen.

Great message Bob.

ohgoodgolly

Ugh, the police did exactly what these little brats wanted. I imagine they were shitting themselves in excitement and anticipation when they looked down from the roof and saw riot cops lining up downstairs all for them. Now they have the police brutality/us against the system story they have been itching for.