SunSeeker
SunSeeker's JournalWho were the 'outsiders' at Columbia University's Hamilton Hall?
When James Carlson was arrested inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, he was already under investigation for snatching an Israeli flag out of a man’s hand near campus and setting it on fire.
That wasn’t the first time Carlson, who has no affiliation with Columbia, had run afoul of the law. He was arrested in San Francisco in 2005 during a violent protest organized by an anarchist group, according to a senior law enforcement official. The 40-year-old animal rights lawyer is among the group of “professional outsiders” cast by the New York City police department and mayor as having a significant role in the takeover of Hamilton Hall.
Some of the student protesters think the narrative pushed by city and university officials — of dangerous outsiders co-opting the demonstrations — is fueled by ulterior motives. Rory Wilson, 22, a Columbia senior who did not participate in the protests, offered a different take.
After midnight on Tuesday, Wilson and a friend placed themselves outside a Hamilton Hall door for several minutes to prevent the protesters from barricading it shut. Video footage released by the city showed a 63-year-old activist named Lisa Fithian at the center of the action, directing the protesters on how to barricade the doors and referring to Wilson and his friend as “assholes.”
“She was right in the middle of it, instructing them how to better set up the barricades,” said Wilson, who has Jewish heritage but is not a practicing Jew. “Given that the barricades were a pretty central part of the plan of how to take over Hamilton, I’d expect that she would have been pretty central in the logistics planning.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/outsiders-columbia-universitys-hamilton-hall-rcna150530
A veteran activist joined Columbia protesters. Police call her a 'professional agitator.'
As pro-Palestinian student protesters took over a building at Columbia University in New York City early Tuesday, one person in the crowd outside stood out — a gray-haired woman who delivered orders to young people helping to barricade a door.
“Tie it right to the lock,” she told two masked protesters holding zip ties, according to video posted on social media. The protesters did as they were told, using the ties on a metal table pressed against the door of Hamilton Hall.
“Let’s give them a little cover,” the older woman told the crowd. “Cameras back. Cameras back.”
The woman was not a Columbia University student or faculty member. She, in fact, has no known affiliation to the school at all.
She is a 63-year-old veteran activist named Lisa Fithian, whom the New York Police Department described as a “professional agitator.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/veteran-activist-joined-columbia-protesters-police-call-professional-a-rcna150261
Pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA refuse orders to disperse
Source: KTLA.com
At around 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sky5 captured at least two dozen patrol vehicles parked on campus grounds very near the encampment. The footage also showed hundreds of demonstrators locking arms in front of the path leading to the encampment.
Demonstrators were also seen reinforcing barricades, as law enforcement surrounded the encampment.
Hours later, at around 9 p.m., hundreds of demonstrators were still occupying the encampment with police on the outskirts despite the orders to disperse issued earlier in the afternoon.
This is a developing story. Stay with KTLA for additional updates.
Read more: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/police-amass-large-presence-at-ucla-after-violence-broke-out-overnight/
Update: The police moved in overnight, hundreds were arrested, relatively without incident. What us left now is a trashed Royce Hall, and a trashed Powell Library which is across the quad from Royce Hall. It's midterms at UCLA right now, and normally Powell Library would be packed, but it is unusable right now. UCLA has announced classes will be online the rest of the week.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/ucla-campus-trashed-after-police-dismantle-encampment/
Smashed windows, stacked furniture left after occupation of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University
Images and video released by Columbia University show overturned and stacked furniture, broken windows and other damage in the aftermath of the seizure and occupation of Hamilton Hall by protesters and its clearing by police Tuesday.
The images from inside Hamilton Hall show overturned chairs, tables and other furniture. Protesters broke windows and caused other damage at the occupied hall, university officials said and images showed. Barricades had also been set up.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/smashed-windows-piled-furniture-left-occupation-hamilton-hall-columbia-rcna150154
Russia is trying to exploit America's divisions over the war in Gaza
Russia is seeking to exploit America’s divisive debate over Israel’s offensive in Gaza through overt and covert propaganda, with the aim of aggravating political tensions in the U.S. and tarnishing Washington’s global image, according to two sources familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.
In its ongoing information war against the United States, Russia has shifted its focus in recent months to the Israel-Hamas conflict, seeking to inflame existing divisions in the West and to portray Washington as fueling the violence, the sources said.
The effort includes artificial intelligence, fake social media accounts, a long-standing tactic used by Moscow, as well as a spike in propaganda from Russian state media. The sources declined to share examples of Russian-generated bots on social media to avoid revealing U.S. intelligence-gathering methods.
The campaign is the latest example of Russia’s bid to seize on existing political rifts in America and other NATO countries, according to the sources and independent researchers.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/russia-trying-exploit-americas-divisions-war-gaza-rcna149759
NYPD officers descend on Columbia University campus to clear protest
Source: NBC News
NYPD officers descended on Columbia University just after 9 p.m. and started clearing the encampment. Protesters just outside of campus were seen being placed in zip ties.
Special police units entered Hamilton Hall using a massive truck and a ramp, entering through a window.
Columbia and Barnard students were urged by school officials to shelter in place. Protesters stormed and occupied a building on Columbia University's main campus overnight, flying a Palestinian flag from Hamilton Hall after an NBC News reporter saw windows smashed and dozens of protesters entering the building.
Students who are occupying the building face expulsion, a Columbia spokesperson said. Those occupying campus are being suspended.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/campus-protests-live-updates-students-occupy-columbia-university-rcna149926
Update:
The police have apparently completed their mission without incident.
Iranian rapper's death sentence sparks protests in Southern California
Demonstrators around the globe, including here in Los Angeles, came out over the weekend to protest the Iranian Revolutionary Court’s death sentence against rapper Toomaj Salehi, according to multiple reports.
The 33-year-old metal shop worker gained prominence for his lyrics criticizing the Islamic Republic after the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died while in custody of police in Iran. She was allegedly arrested for wearing her hijab too loosely.
Amini’s death, which UN investigators say Iran was responsible for, ignited massive protests and a violent, monthslong crackdown by Iranian security forces that killed 500 people and detained more than 20,000, the Associated Press reported.
Several high-profile advocates and organizations, including the U.S. Government, have spoken out against Iran on behalf of Salehi and others. https://ktla.com/news/local-news/demonstrators-in-southern-california-protest-iranian-rappers-death-sentence/
Orange Crush supporters respond after recent remarks from Tybee's mayor scolding annual HBCU beach bash
The date for Orange Crush usually coincides with the calendar week of spring break at most HBCU schools, and that’s the rationale behind when the event is scheduled. A public beach with very few ways to legally shut down access, there is not much Tybee can do to prevent a large number of people from meeting at the beach, at the same time, every year. Orange Crush in 2024 falls on the weekend of April 19-21.
The pier did not need to be permitted, since it is operated by Chatham County, so Turner was never denied an event permit by the City of Tybee Island. Still, he decided to cancel his fashion show event for the pier out of worry that Tybee could hold Orange Crush Florida accountable for anything that happened on the island that weekend, especially after Wigfall's permit denial.
Turner also believes there is a race factor behind the actions of Tybee officials. Demographic data from Census Reporter indicates Tybee's population of roughly 3,100 is 93.7 percent white (2,928 residents) and 3.4 percent black (110).
Pearce finished well behind Mayor West in Tybee's November 2023 mayoral election, but she was aiming to become the island's first black mayor. Wigfall listed her as one of two references on his Jan. 22 HBCU Food Truck Festival permit application. When asked if she was surprised by Tybee's handling of Orange Crush of late, Pearce said she wasn't.
https://www.connectsavannah.com/community/orange-crush-supporters-respond-after-recent-remarks-from-tybees-mayor-scolding-the-annual-hbcu-beach-bash-21703462
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I happened to be on Tybee Island this weekend camping. The police were out of control, stopping and arresting black spring breakers. All the Tybee Island restaurants had closed for the weekend, and barricades were placed on public streets on Tybee Island so that students could not get to the beaches. But the police did not bother us, we are white. It made me sick to see how they treated those students from HBCUs. How is this not a national story?
The Key to Winning the White House: Math
Biden starts the process at a slight mathematical disadvantage from 2020: Redistricting after the 2020 census means he would get three fewer Electoral College votes (303) if he won the same places he won four years ago. That’s still enough to win, but a scenario that makes it even more critical that he hang on to what he captured in his first face-off with Trump.
And that's shaping up to be an uphill battle for the incumbent president, with polls showing Trump ahead in the core battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada,
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
So the Biden campaign is casting its eyes farther afield: South, to be specific, with North Carolina as a primary target and Florida part of the mix as well. Both states, notably, picked up an Electoral College vote in the 2024 map. And Democrats see the New South, including Georgia, as a new pathway to victory this fall.
"If there is going to be a pickup anywhere on the map, North Carolina is the target, if history tells us anything," says Christopher Cooper, director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University. The Tar Heel State – where a recent Marist Institute of Public Opinion poll showed Trump just 3 percentage points ahead of Biden – is "just as gettable" for Biden as Georgia is, Cooper says. "It's primed."
https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2024-03-29/biden-looks-south-to-beat-trump-in-2024-presidential-race
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