New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Praises NYPD: 'We Must Protect The Safety Of The Entire Campus Community'

5 months ago

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) speaks about the violence committed by pro-Palestinian activists who took over college campuses.

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Transcript

00:00 About the topic of the day, which is retail theft, I also want to talk about something that is very much on everyone's mind, and that is what happened

00:07 last night on our college campuses here in the city of New York.

00:12 Yesterday, I also addressed New Yorkers about what has been unfolding on our college campuses over the last couple of weeks.

00:19 I reiterated that students have a First Amendment right to speak their mind,

00:24 protest, whether or not we agree with their political views.

00:28 But when that protest evolves into violence, vandalism, destruction of property,

00:35 even harassment, a line has been crossed.

00:41 And in public and in private, we have been urging the protesters to de-escalate the tensions,

00:48 follow the rules set by their universities, allow a sense of normalcy to return to their campuses.

00:55 As I called for de-escalation of their activity, they decided to take a different approach.

01:01 They escalated the violence and vandalism yesterday, continuing to occupy a building at Columbia,

01:08 barricading the doors, refusing entry of others who were lawfully entitled to go there,

01:14 attempting to break into other buildings, causing massive destruction on that campus as well as the City College campus,

01:23 smashing windows, again vandalizing property.

01:27 Let me be clear.

01:30 There is no circumstance where violence or vandalism is tolerated or acceptable,

01:37 whether you're on a college campus or walking the streets of New York.

01:42 Targeting Jewish students for harassment or abuse because of the actions of the Israeli government is also anti-Semitic and wrong.

01:53 Glorifying the acts of Hamas on October 7th is reprehensible,

01:58 as well as any circumstances racist or Islamophobic rhetoric toward your political opponents is not acceptable.

02:07 Universities have always been a place of robust debate.

02:11 I know, I was once a university student.

02:14 But free expression has its limits when individuals have a right to be free from harassment.

02:22 The rest of the campus.

02:23 They should not be living in fear because you're claiming an exercise of your rights.

02:29 They should not be afraid of harassment or violence.

02:32 But that's what was starting to happen on our campuses over the last couple of weeks.

02:36 So we must protect the safety of the entire campus community,

02:41 including the thousands of students who simply want to finish up,

02:47 conclude their studies, take their exams, and in some cases, the privilege of walking across the stage to accept their diploma.

02:54 That's the vast majority of students on college campuses and their rights are being disrupted and that is wrong.

03:02 That is one of the reasons why university administrators made the difficult decision to call in the NYPD for additional support.

03:09 I will say this, the NYPD had a plan.

03:15 They arrived on campus and acted professionally and fairly.

03:18 It could have been far worse.

03:21 They managed it in an extremely professional way.

03:24 As I said yesterday, the state of New York has also offered assistance to universities and the city of New York

03:30 as they address these issues and particularly the universities throughout the state as they prepare for their commencements,

03:36 which as I said, everyone is entitled to participate in a live commencement ceremony.

03:42 We'll continue being there to support the students, the faculty, the staff,

03:48 and support all New Yorkers who deserve to live in safety.

03:52 With that, I'll take any on topics or off topics.

03:56 I'm going to start with retail theft.

03:58 Anybody have questions about that?

04:00 Okay, let's move to off topics.

04:04 Timothy.

04:12 Do you think that the students at Columbia who occupied or attempted to occupy the M2L should be expelled from Columbia?

04:18 That is to be determined by the universities.

04:23 We, you know, our teams were trying to have communications with them prior to the advance of the NYPD

04:30 to communicate in ways that would say, you know, the clock is ticking.

04:36 If you want to salvage your academic career here, you know, you have options.

04:41 You don't have to be continuing to do this.

04:43 There are exit ramps available to you and the students knew that and they did not take advantage of.

04:50 So they stayed with their eyes wide open and there are definitely consequences.

04:55 In some cases, there'll be legal consequences, but certainly disciplinary action from the university is warranted,

05:01 but that is a call they will make.

05:02 Going back to last week, do you think that the New York State Court of Appeals made the right or wrong decision in overturning

05:11 Harvey Weinstein?

05:12 As I said last week, I want to make sure that nothing deters any woman from coming forward with the horrific stories that she may have,

05:21 the experiences she had, and we don't want to suppress that.

05:24 Harvey Weinstein remains incarcerated.

05:27 He will remain incarcerated.

05:29 He'll do his time here and he also faces charges in California.

05:33 So the outcome will be that he will continue to be in jail and that's what I'll, my comment on the decision.

05:39 I will just leave it at that.

05:40 He will continue to be, he'll be retried.

05:43 The district attorney will do that and that is my statement on that particular situation.

05:49 Thanks everybody.

05:50 I appreciate it.

05:50 Bye-bye.

05:51 Did you listen to Taylor Swift's album?

05:52 I did.

05:53 And what do you think?

05:53 I love her.

05:55 She's great.

05:56 (laughter)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Praises NYPD: 'We Must Protect The Safety Of The Entire Campus Community'

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