New York, NY – In response to incidents of  police violence against students at Columbia University and Brooklyn College this week, Marcia Belsky, a member of Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) released the following statement on behalf of the organization:
 

“The continued hyper-militarized police response to protestors, particularly Palestine solidarity activists on college campuses, is an outrage. From Columbia University to Brooklyn College, inviting militarized police into institutions of higher learning, where they can brutalize students, is unacceptable – yet in the past year, it has become the norm across New York City and the entire country. 

The presence of the NYPD’s notoriously abusive Strategic Response Group (SRG) on college campuses is already an outrage; the beating, arrest, and criminalization of student activists is dangerous enough on its own. Inflicting this on students is all the more indefensible given the authoritarian Trump administration’s repeated abduction and threatened deportation of student activists. The criminalization of student protestors actively invites the anti-democratic targeting and deportation of those students: Trump’s U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has already said that federal officials are 'reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library.'

The Trump administration, Mayor Adams, and campus administrators claim they are carrying out state violence and crushing dissent in the name of Jewish safety. The opposite is true: pluralistic democracy, constitutional freedoms, and equal rights for all are what keep Jews safe, not authoritarianism and the silencing of speech. As Jews and as New Yorkers, we will not stay silent. New York City must disband the SRG, and defend academic freedom and the right to protest.” 

 

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Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) is a 6,000-member grassroots organization and the home of New York’s Jewish Left. For over 30 years, JFREJ members have organized alongside our neighbors to transform New York from a playground for the wealthy few into a real democracy, free from all forms of racist violence.