59 CommentsThis afternoon, Bwog received the following anonymous tip in regards to an incident outside of Carman Hall:
Spotted around 11:40 AM
A safety guard and a Carman 5 resident in an intense physical fight outside Carman. Student (shirtless) tries to flee is pursued and subsequently attacked by guard. Trail of 4 or 5 other guards run towards the scene. Crowd watching with phones out.
The following public tweet has been shared with a picture of the incident described above. The face of the student has been blurred to protect their identity. It is clear in the photo that the student is placed in a chokehold by an officer (it is unclear if it is an NYPD officer or a Public Safety officer.) However, an NYPD official can be seen observing the incident in the reflection on the door. The man in the white shirt to the left of the student is also an NYPD Sergeant given the three stripes on his shirt sleeve.
Shortly after, a Bwogger tipped they had also heard of a similar incident occurring in Hartley Hall this morning. A friend of the Bwogger said they had seen a similar incident involving a first year student and two Public Safety officers. It is unclear if the two incidents were related.
Update, 8:42 PM: A University spokesperson responded to Bwog with the following statement:
On Thursday, March 12th 2015, at approximately 11:15 a.m. a Columbia affiliate was detained by Columbia Public Safety, after exhibiting disturbing behavior in the lobby of an undergraduate University residential building, and while awaiting the arrival of residential programs staff, the affiliate decided to flee the area. The affiliate was intercepted in the vestibule of another undergraduate residential building, and although resisted, was restrained by Public Safety officers. No injuries were sustained and minimal force was used, consistent with Public Safety training and Article 35 of the New York State Penal Code (which states that use of physical force is taken only when necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury). The use of force of any kind is rare at Columbia thanks to the shared communication, respect and trust within our community.
Loading …
59 Comments
@Van Owen Give Public Safety credit for preventing a rape. I was in Hartley and this guy was telling the Officer at the desk that he was going to force a girl, who lives in Carman, to have sex with him. He was looking pretty fucking crazy and he assaulted two other Public Safety Officers and ran out of the building shirtless. Fuck the “choke hold” bullshit, give these Public Safety guys a break.
@Sorry This is blatantly false. Don’t make up facts to create sympathy for the offending officer. I am an RA and I have details to the actual story.
@Van Owen Sorry dude, I was there and what I saw and heard are the facts, so why don’t you shove your RA “details” up your ass and come clean to what actually went down. That athlete has a bit of a stalking problem, apparently, and those “offending” officers prevented a rape. That is all.
@Anonymous Can confirm that it’s true- he got kicked out of housing for going after the same girl. Not a stretch to assume he was back for more.
@Bystander I was present during the event and was less than 10 feet away from the kid in that very image in the picture. Given the events in Ferguson, I looked closely to see if the police were indeed doing a chokehold maneuver. Whether what I saw is defined as a chokehold or not is up to those who define that word, but what I saw was the officer wrapping his arm around the neck/collar bone of the student. He urged the student to relax. I deliberately checked to see if the arm was making contact with the neck and throat area, and there was no pressure on the neck or throat. I believe in the maxim innocent until proven guilty, but I am very glad that the student was restrained by the police officer. Moments earlier before he ran into Carman, I witnessed the student wrestle with the police officer then sprint after getting away. The student sprinted past me with a scarred and wild look in his eyes. That student easily could have ran into a bystander, grabbed a someone, or somehow put the safety of innocent people at risk.
@Anonymous This is bullshit. If you’re just a “bystander” no need to post anonymously. :P
@Anonymous The choke hold was not Ferguson…
@Anonymous Has anyone considered that maybe this kid was having some mental health issues and that they were merely responding by restraining him from hurting anyone, or himself?
Midterms is stressful y’all…just saying.
@anoon Anyone else ever wonder what their own skin taste like? Like I sometimes just want to take a bite our of my arm just to try it… idk is that weird ?
@hmm This has almost nothing to do with the chokehold/headlock. The first question is: why is he in an altercation with the police?
@To my knowledge... Public Safety is not allowed to touch students. That is a one of Public Safety’s statutes. McShane has said this to me himself.
@Anonymous Incorrect. Public Safety can use force when required to protect themselves or another person. This includes restraining students who pose a danger to themselves.
@Charles Sanky The man in the white shirt is not NYPD… He’s a sergeant or lieutenant in CUPS
@i wonder i wonder if he can breathe
@Woooooooow y’all commenters are racist misogynists!!!!! Hope you’re proud of yoursekves!
@yeah...no Situations like this are not unusual here at all. I have been having a conversation with a group of friends (all of us are black) on multiple occasions and seen them walk past larger, louder groups of non-black students to harass us.
@ciswhiteboystudent This isn’t what police abuse looks like. If you think this is what police abuse looks like you have no idea what people have been protesting over. Let’s see if instead of a white boy picking a fight in a Columbia dorm room with the always friendly and helpful public safety officials this was a black kid picking a fight with an officer on 125th.
@I get it now Oh ok – I think I understand. People have been protesting over violence against black people, and they could care less what happens to white people. Thanks for clarifying.
@Anonymous Why is bwog posting this without knowing any of the facts. This is disgraceful.
@Anonymous Why does the black officer have a choke hold on a white unarmed college student?
@Anonymous This is disrespectful to the student and should be taken down.
@Um getting into a physical fight is disrespectful and beyond rude and warrants arrest. If you don’t want to be on bwog don’t be an asshole and don’t get in fights.
@Anonymous Were they arresting him for not completing the sexual respect requirement?
@Anonymous That’s a headlock, not a chokehold
@Does it matter? Headlocks are also potentially lethal.
I don’t think we can support use of potentially lethal force on an unarmed student, even unarmed students who do something stupid or disrespectful.
@Anonymous But pretty much any way to restrain somebody combative is potentially lethal.
@Anon The kid more than likely started the fight… The officers here are great from my experience and definitely wouldn’t do any of this unwarranted.
@Anonymous And two plus two equals four!
@anon was it an actual choke hold or did the officer use a headlock? they look similar but are completely different. a headlock is used to control a persons body from the neck, a chokehold is used to deprive them of the ability to breath. big difference. also if someone says “i can’t breathe”, they can breathe, you need air in your lungs to talk.
@okay actually this might not be a chokehold. you’re right, because a chokehold is VERY specific. so specific that even you got the definition wrong. a chokehold doesn’t actually go to cut off air supply. it’s supposed to cut off blood flow from the carotid artery to the brain to knock someone out. a sleeper hold or whatever.
so.
this officer has an arm around the guy’s neck. a headlock would have his elbow tucked further in under his chin. so this isn’t any fancy maneuver he’s just actually choking the guy out.
@officer spiffy Actually some chokeholds -do- work by cutting off air from the lungs. Chokeholds aren’t as specific as you claim. Anything that cuts off air supply is a chokehold.
That said, it’s highly unlikely that Public Safety used a chokehold. This was almost certainly some sort of restraint.
@Anonymous Sorry, I have two eyes. This is a chokehold. Nothing “highly unlikely” about it.
@SEAS '15 I have three eyes! And I declare it not a chokehold. Checkmate.
@anon Looks like that black officer is pretty racist…on the count of three everyone downvote!
@Anonymous On three, let’s all acknowledge what a lame-ass troll that was!
@Curious Yea, what did this kid do?
@Anonymous He didn’t show up to his sexual respect workshop.
@a frosh You joke about it but i have friends who know the guy- he actually got kicked out of Carman/housing for stalking a girl and trying to force his way into her suite….
@Dee Sounds like Anonymous nailed it.
@Anonymous Aaand now there’s a comment saying he was talking about trying to rape the girl… Sounds like a real nut, not sure how he got into CU in the first place. Oh wait hes an athlete….
@CU athletics I bet most of the athletes here work harder and are more driven than you
@SEAS '15 Come on man, really? You don’t need to insult athletics to get your point across. It’s uncool.
@Anon If he was violently stalking this girl, why was the only punishment Columbia gave him to remove him from housing?
It sounds like he should have been suspended, at least…
@Anonymous Well, at least he will be now…(not that that’s much consolation)
@Anonymous legit tho what happens if you don’t go to that bullshit
@Joey Dags The fact this kid is getting treated as the victim is disgusting. Maybe you shouldn’t try to pick a fight with an officer. This school has gone so soft. Screw this kid.
@K-a The fact that you don’t believe in due process disgusts me. Also the fact that you have no clue what you’re talking about disgusts me.
@Anonymous You have it dead on. He should have a proper trial before he’s put in a headlock!
@Anonymous ..they’re chevrons, not stripes
@your mom is a chevron zing
@Heads up hia face is not blurred in the thumbnail for the link on the facebook page
@Anonymous oh no the mossad might see him
@wondering i know that chokeholds are not allowed by the NYPD, but are they allowed by public safety? I’d imagine not
@Odessky We’ve requested internal use of force guidelines and are awaiting response.
@hey Jared also please get clarification of the difference between a chokehold and a headlock, if one is noted in the operations guidelines
@Odessky We were sent two pieces of information:
– The “Your Rights and Responsibilities” guide, which only contains information about reporting use of force abuses of NYPD, but nothing on the practices themselves for Public Safety or NYPD http://www.columbia.edu/cu/publicsafety/Rights%20&%20Responsibilities%20%20Final%20Revised.pdf
– A note that Public Safety provides training to its officers “consistent with Article 35 of the Penal Law.” The link to Article 35 is available here: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/publicsafety/Rights%20&%20Responsibilities%20%20Final%20Revised.pdf
@Anonymous Other arm of the officer is not behind the students neck or applying pressure to the neck so as to cause a lock/ build pressure. Therefore this is not really a choke. It’s not possible to execute an air or blood choke with one arm.
@Anon Is it a headlock?
Is it a chokehold?
Should public safety be allowed, “consistent with Public Safety Training” to have their arms around a students neck?