Several dozen NYPD officers cleared a demonstration of about as many pro-Palestinian student demonstrators from Brooklyn College Thursday evening before making a series of violent arrests and tasing one demonstrator just outside the campus.
A group of about four dozen students had gathered hours earlier on a campus lawn, waving Palestinian flags and setting up several tents with a list of five demands, including having the college boycott and divest from companies that profit from Israel’s war in Gaza, dubbing the quad a “Liberated Zone.”
Dozens of NYPD officers entered the gated campus to oust the demonstrators shortly before 6 p.m., with students leaving campus without incident, funneled out of the campus gates onto Bedford Avenue.
But a tense situation quickly devolved on the streets around the school, as officers started making a series of violent arrests.
In one instance, an officer used a Taser in front of the Tanger Hillel, a club house for Jewish students. A video of the incident captured by FreedomNews.tv showed the officer tasing the protester while he wailed in pain.
Two eyewitnesses, who asked not to be named, said they watched the officer use the Taser on the demonstrator.
A reporter for THE CITY on the scene heard the zapping sound characteristic of the weapon from several feet away from where the protester was being taken down to the ground by several officers. An NYPD spokesperson didn’t immediately return a request for comment about the use of a Taser on a demonstrator.
Another young woman’s face was bloody and swollen after she was tackled to the ground by an officer, while THE CITY watched as several other demonstrators were slammed to the ground and pinned down under multiple officers.
Police didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the total number of arrests, though reporters for THE CITY witnessed about eight people being detained.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take part in a protest at Brooklyn College, May 8, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
“Protesters today erected tents on the Brooklyn College quad in violation of college policy. After multiple warnings to take the tents down and disperse, members of CUNY Public Safety and NYPD removed the tents and dispersed the crowd,” said Richard Pietras, a spokesperson for Brooklyn College, said in a statement. “The safety of our campus community will always be paramount, and Brooklyn College respects the right to protest while also adhering to strict rules meant to ensure the safe operation of our University and prohibit individuals from impeding access to educational facilities.”
The Brooklyn College protest, coming just before finals, followed dozens of arrests the night before inside and outside Columbia University after pro-Palestinian demonstrators, many of them masked, flooded and attempted to occupy a campus library. An NYPD spokesperson confirmed 78 people were given desk appearance tickets for criminal trespassing and another two received summonses.
Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday criticized the Columbia protesters, saying in a TV interview that the “behavior is unacceptable.”
Unlike at the Columbia demonstration, the Brooklyn College students made no attempt to enter a building but gathered on an outdoor lawn where around three dozen protesters remained for hours, chanting “Palestine will live forever” and waving Palestinian flags.
A row of sympathetic faculty members stood watch throughout most of the afternoon as dozens of NYPD officers stood by on Ocean Avenue.
Classics professor Liv Yarrow described the protest as “incredibly peaceful and in no way disruptive,” adding, “the faculty are extra disturbed by the presence of armed police and the zip ties.”
Additional reporting by Katie Honan.
Dozens of NYPD officers enter Brooklyn College to break up a small pro-Palestinian encampment, May 8, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
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