New School students take over building, police respond with questionable force

Date: 4/16/2009 11:00 am

At New School University, students decided to take matters into their own hands by re-occupying one of the school’s buildings (students staged a similar protest late last semester)—a move ultimately shut down by NYPD arrests. About 75 protesters barricaded themselves into a building and demanded, among other things, that University President Bob Kerrey resign and students be given more governance authority over the University. The protest appears to represent the sentiments of many students and faculty; earlier in the semester, 95% of the university’s faculty cast a vote of no confidence in Kerrey’s ability to lead the institution and several student governance organizations have written supporting the students’ demands.

The protest was shut down when New York City police officers entered the building to arrest the students. As with many recent protests captured on film, what’s less clear is what happened once NYPD entered the building and whether the police officers’ actions were appropriate. There are multiple videos of the events, and it is unclear whether or not police used unwarranted force against the students. A civilian recording shows police officers hitting a student in the head, and then roughly pushing him to the ground. Another recording shows at least one student hurling a metal barricade towards officers. Yet another video shows students calmly sitting and holding up their hands to police to make it easier to cuff them. As the videos circulate on the internet, people are attempting to make sense of the situation, but it seems none of the videos produce a full story.

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