Columbia University got blasted from all sides Tuesday for refusing to call in police to roust the anti-Israel mob that illegally took over a campus building.
Hours after scores of violent protesters stormed and began occupying historic Hamilton Hall — using a hammer to break through a window and roughing up a student who tried to stop the anarchy — do-nothing officials at the Ivy League institution still had yet to ask the NYPD to address the mayhem.
Instead, the school only said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that it would be suspending the rioters and potentially expelling at least some of them for “vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances.’’
“It’s time we put it to an end,’’ former NYPD lieutenant and current state Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-Staten Island) raged to The Post, referring to the out-of-control hooligans.
“I think it’s long past time that the governor and the mayor take the bull by the horns and treat those who destroy property, those who want to block students who want to go to classes, with the consequences they deserve,” Reilly said.
“Those damaging property and preventing others from accessing areas need to be arrested.”
Matthew Schweber, a lawyer and member of the Manhattan Ivy League school’s Jewish Alumni Association, seethed, “For the past six months, the administration has been paralyzed and the faculty have protected and, in some cases, incited a student mob.
“Together, they have condoned calls for intifada on campus. The violence that has erupted is a direct result of their abdication. It must stop now.”
The inflammatory term “intifada’’ means uprising and in this context includes the “Second Intifada” of 2000-2005, in which Palestinian terrorists murdered hundreds of civilians.
The students have been protesting Israel’s blistering military response in Gaza after the Palestinian terror group Hamas launched its deadly Oct. 7 massacre on Israel.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Bronx) added in a tweet, “Vandalism and breaking the law are not part of the fabric of American values, democracy, or peaceful protest.
“Antisemitism should never be tolerated, and what we witnessed last night at @Columbia is unacceptable.”
The NYPD has said it cannot enter the campus to bust the rioters and restore order unless Columbia officials provide them with a written request asking for their presence.
That’s because the university is considered private property, and cops have not witnessed any “harm to life’’ or anything beyond property damage to warrant intervention otherwise, law-enforcement sources said.
Mayor Eric Adams, asked Tuesday about the state calling in the National Guard, told reporters that the NYPD could handle the crisis.
“We don’t need the National Guard,” he said — as a rep for Gov. Kathy Hochul echoed the claim, saying the state would leave the call up to the NYPD.
About a hundred cops — mainly from the department’s elite Strategic Response Group, which responds to sudden crises — were amassed on Randall’s Island at the ready to enter school grounds if necessary, sources said.
NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Central Park on Tuesday, “And as of right now, the NYPD is always ready, but we will not be going onto Columbia’s property without a specific request for them or not unless there is imminent danger, imminent emergency, where we have to go on the property … someone screaming for help, someone needing assistance, being hurt, we will go on the property to address that situation.
“As of right now, if that person who had some kind of a scuffle or skirmish, if he calls us and says, ‘I was attacked or want to make a police report,’ we’ll investigate that, and we’ll address that,’’ Maddrey said.
“But if we don’t get a phone call — we need a complainant to make that, to do that investigation and to make that arrest.”
Adams continued to gripe about the protesters — but stopped short of criticizing the university for failing to take decisive action.
“You can’t call for peace by using violence. That’s not acceptable,’’ Hizzoner said.
But “we want to respect [school officials’] right to determine when they want a police involvement, and when they ask us, we’re going to carry out the necessary exercise to do with a minimum amount of force to not in any way harm faculty or students or law-enforcement personnel,” Adams said.
“The NYPD is doing an amazing job and the right balance,’’ he claimed. “If there is a need [for] additional resources, we know how to get [them].”
The spokesman for Hochul indicated that the state is leaving the mess to the city.
“As the Governor has previously stated, she has the utmost respect for the men and women of the NYPD who are the local law enforcement agency in New York City,’’ the rep said in a statement.
“We will continue to work with them to keep everyone safe and provide additional support if they request.”
Columbia refused to comment when asked by The Post on Tuesday why the NYPD hadn’t been called in to quell the chaos yet.
The campus was thrown into lockdown over the mayhem, and some furious students who live at the school said they can’t even get food because many dining halls are closed.
Additional reporting by Vaughn Golden
