On the 56th anniversary of the 1968 police sweep, officers once again surged onto Columbia’s campus to clear occupied Hamilton Hall. In 1968, the New York Police Department beat and arrested hundreds of students who occupied five buildings in protest of the Vietnam War and the planned construction of a gym in Morningside Park.

On April 30, student protesters occupied Hamilton again and renamed it “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Jan. 29. The NYPD sweep followed a monthslong struggle between the Columbia administration and student demonstrators calling for the University to divest from Israel.

Nearly two weeks after the creation of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on April 17, which was initially swept by the NYPD on April 18 before immediately reforming, and days after unsuccessful negotiations between protesters and the University, University President Minouche Shafik once again authorized the NYPD “to clear all individuals from Hamilton Hall and all campus encampments” on April 30.

“Because my first responsibility is safety, with the support of the University’s Trustees, I made the decision to ask the New York City Police Department to intervene to end the occupation of Hamilton Hall and dismantle the main encampment along with a new, smaller encampment,” Shafik wrote in an email to the Columbia community the next morning.

During their sweep of occupied Hamilton, police officers threw a protester down the stairs in front of the building, according to videos reviewed by Spectator. Another protester laid on the ground unmoving as police officers stood over them. Outside the undergraduate admissions office entrance to Hamilton, officers pushed protesters to the ground and slammed them with metal barricades.

Body camera footage from the police sweep shows the use of stun grenades—which flash blinding light and emit a loud, explosive sound—during the sweep. The NYPD confirmed that an officer accidentally fired their gun into an office on the first floor of Hamilton while clearing the building.

The morning after the sweep, Shafik thanked the NYPD for its “incredible professionalism and support” in her email to the community.

Despite the NYPD clearing people, including journalists, off campus before the arrests , Spectator reporters and photographers captured the intense moments that will define Columbia’s history. The following is a compilation of photographs and screen captures of video from Spectator staff.

In the early evening, protesters began gathering on Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway in solidarity with the pro-Palestinian protesters occupying Hamilton. Toward the evening, hundreds of police began encircling campus, including members of the Strategic Response Group and Counterterrorism Bureau. Around 5:40 p.m., more metal barricades were set up, blocking off the road from 114th Street to 120th Street on Broadway and stretching east toward Morningside Park.

After multiple organizers were seen running around campus in preparation for a potential NYPD sweep, a human chain formed in front of “Hind’s Hall” at 8:13 p.m. Protesters sang, “We shall not, we shall not be moved, just like a tree that’s planted by the water, we shall not be moved.”

Public Safety brought keys to unlock the locks on the gates outside Carman Hall and John Jay Hall, which both open onto 114th Street.

At 8:45 p.m., a Public Safety officer at the Carman gates ordered students to disperse, directing them inside Carman. Onlookers were told to move back from the gates, where they continued to observe the unfolding scene through the lobby windows.

Police set up barricades around an entrance to the Carman gates. Members of the press, students, and other onlookers stood on the other side, waiting to watch the police enter campus.

Then, around 8:53 p.m., officers rushed into the crowd on 114th Street, forcefully shoving people against barricades and yelling at individuals to get inside of a brownstone or face arrest.

Onlookers watched from inside campus as the police moved past the barricades. Uncertain which gate police would enter campus through, members of the press and observers ran back and forth between the Carman and John Jay gates multiple times.

On 114th Street, many of the people who had been pushed into the brownstones by the NYPD were stuck for hours, even after the sweep had ended.

At around 9 p.m., with Shafik’s authorization, hundreds of NYPD officers began to enter campus through the Carman gate at 114th Street and Broadway. Police officers cleared the street and pushed press and onlookers inside nearby buildings.

Spectator videographers Wyatt King, CC ’26, and Elliott Heath, CC ’27, documented the NYPD’s entrance onto campus.

At 9:07 p.m., King, Spectator’s video editor, was on the front line as the NYPD marched toward observers, pushing them away from South Lawn and Hamilton.

As police officers advanced toward Hamilton, onlookers began scattering to avoid arrest.

Members of the police paused as hundreds of officers entered behind them, passing in front of Butler Library.

At 9:11 p.m., police officers continued pushing press and onlookers on campus away from Butler and Hamilton, as more officers filed in.

Officers in riot gear encircled South Lawn and blocked off the entrance to the encampment.

Around 9:13 p.m., NYPD officers in riot gear made their way to the front of Hamilton, pushing onlookers back from the entrance. At one point, while protesters watched hundreds of police march toward Hamilton, they chanted, “NYPD, KKK, IOF, they’re all the same.”

Officers formed a line blocking anyone from documenting the scenes in front of Hamilton. Behind them, one of the protesters occupying Hamilton waved a Palestinian flag on the balcony, while people inside Hartley Hall and the building across Amsterdam Avenue looked down onto the scene.

Using their batons, at around 9:15 p.m., police officers began moving onlookers onto the steps in front of the admissions office entrance to Hamilton.

Officers forced some students into the John Jay lobby, where they placed their batons through the door handles to lock students inside. At one point, students inside were banging on the door to get out and chanting, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and yelling “shame” at officers, while others stood waiting to be let out.

In front of the admissions office entrance, eight student protesters stood arm in arm in front of the barricaded door while numerous cops stood waiting for orders to pull them apart.

At 9:24 p.m., students, journalists, and other onlookers were escorted off campus after the police directed them between buildings and attempted to force them inside.

At around 9:26 p.m., officers from the Emergency Service Unit made their way to the front of Hamilton with riot shields, saws, stun grenades, and other devices.

Immediately after, the officers outside the admissions office entrance to Hamilton rushed at the protesters, grabbing and pulling at their wrists and arms while yelling at them.

At one point, officers pushed protesters to the ground and slammed them with nearby metal barricades.

Around 9:28 p.m., NYPD officers began breaking into the previously barricaded admissions entrance to Hamilton, entering the building as other officers blocked anyone else from coming near.

At around 9:30 p.m., police shoved a person in a keffiyeh into a hedge.

In videos reviewed by Spectator, officers threw another protester down the stairs in front of Hamilton.

During the sweep, police threw multiple wooden chairs, metal tables, metal trash cans, and other objects down the stairs.

At 9:34 p.m., Strategic Response Group officers passed in front of Hartley toward Hamilton and were ordered to pull down their visors as they approached Hamilton. This image was taken through a window of Hartley after the NYPD had forced students into nearby dorm buildings.

NYPD body camera footage showed officers breaking windows and door handles to enter the building. CNN reported that it took officers six minutes and 40 seconds to breach the barricaded entrances to Hamilton.

Protesters were seated on the floor of the Hamilton lobby when police entered. Body camera footage shows officers shoving a protester to the ground upon entry and entering rooms with their guns drawn.

Meanwhile, around 9:35 p.m., those outside campus watched as officers began to enter the third floor of Hamilton from Amsterdam Avenue. Protesters and onlookers on the sidewalk shouted “Shame” as officers climbed through the window using a police truck and ladder. Here, police wore khaki pants and different uniforms than those inside campus with riot gear.

At around 9:37 p.m., police began to walk arrested protesters out through the John Jay gates. Officers continued blocking onlookers from coming near the main entrance of Hamilton or South Lawn.

Around 10 p.m., multiple protesters were loaded onto correctional buses on 114th Street.

Around 10:02 p.m., officers still encircled the South Lawn encampment while others looked through tents to ensure the area was cleared.

Around 10:18 p.m., correctional buses filled with arrested protesters began to head north on Amsterdam Avenue before turning on 116th Street. The sidewalk was filled with pro-Palestinian protesters cheering and waving to those inside the bus.

Officers stood outside the entrances to all of the buildings on the south side of campus, preventing people from entering or exiting.

Workers removed everything from South Lawn throughout the night. The morning after the sweep on May 1, the lawn was empty, with patches of discolored grass remaining where the tents used to be. The campus was also relatively empty, remaining open only to students residing in on-campus residence halls and employees who provide essential services to campus.

After Mayor Eric Adams’ press conference on May 1, where he announced the NYPD’s arrest of at least 109 protesters, including the students occupying Hamilton, Shafik was seen smiling in a blue shawl walking across campus.

In a May 1 email sent by Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, undergraduates in both schools were strongly encouraged to “consider departing early” in light of academic accommodations announced that morning by the the Office of the Provost, which allowed students to take finals remotely.

In a letter to the NYPD delivered on April 30, Shafik requested NYPD presence on campus until May 17, two days after the scheduled Commencement ceremonies on May 15. Columbia subsequently canceled the ceremonies on May 6, and the individual schools’ Class Days were shifted to the Baker Athletics Complex and other off-campus locations.

The cancellation of Commencement was the latest echo of the 1968 protests. The 1968 ceremony was moved from the main campus to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine following the brutal arrests of the student protesters who first occupied Hamilton.

The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and the occupation of Hamilton has sparked student protests worldwide, including encampments and building occupations.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest released a statement the morning after the sweep of occupied Hamilton and the dismantling of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

“We hope this moment will catalyze the world into seeing that students have the right to resist police brutality, just as Palestinians have the right to resist their genocidal oppressors,” CUAD wrote in the statement. “As students display overwhelming support for divestment from Israeli apartheid and genocide, the administration has subjected them to brutal police and state violence.”

“We with our voices, our hearts, and our minds will continue building a student movement that will take back our campuses from morally corrupt administrators that disregard humanity for the sake of profit,” CUAD added.