Four of the protesters arrested at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University and the City College of New York are “outside protest influencers” and not students at the schools, a senior law enforcement official said.
All four have been charged with burglary and illegal entry, the official said.
They are:
James W. Carlson, whom the official described as “a long-time figure in the anarchist world” with multiple aliases like Cody Tarlow and Cody Carlson.
Citing California arrest records, the official said Carlson had previously been arrested in 2005 during the violent G8 protests in San Francisco for attacking a police officer. He was charged with “suspicion of attempted lynching, malicious mischief, battery to a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and willful resistance to a police officer that results in serious bodily injury.”
The official did not divulge whether Carlson was convicted or served any time.
But Carlson has also been suspected of burning an Israeli flag during a demonstration and was “previously involved in recent bridge and tunnel blocking,” said the official, who gave no further specifics.
Amelia Fuller was arrested near CCNY.
Previously, Fuller had been arrested on Jan. 8 for taking part in a pro-Palestinian protest to blockade the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Manhattan to Brooklyn.
Fuller, the official said, was also fired by the New York Botanical Garden after she appeared in a video allegedly declaring that she felt “proud” after Hamas staged the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis that sparked the current Gaza War.
NBC News has reached out to the Botanical Garden for confirmation.
Jacob Issac Gabriel was also arrested near CCNY and has “has numerous protest-related arrests,” the official said.
Gabriel, the official said, was part of a group that disrupted the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Rudy Ralph Martinez was also arrested near CCNY and “has an extensive history of protest-related arrests dating back to California in 2012,” the official said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
