On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight,” NBC News National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Correspondent Tom Winter stated that police responding to the situation at Columbia University are “concerned that there’s a group of anarchist-type individuals who have no particular ideology, it’s pro-Palestine today, pro-Israel tomorrow, pro-another cause next week. But their main goal, police say, is to try to find a way to engage and engage in a violent way, to fight police.”
Winter said, “The students are likely going to face, at a minimum, trespassing charges, burglary charges, potentially vandalism charges. And it’s what’s happening inside that hall, Alex, that has law enforcement so concerned. Primarily they’re concerned that there’s a group of anarchist-type individuals who have no particular ideology, it’s pro-Palestine today, pro-Israel tomorrow, pro-another cause next week. But their main goal, police say, is to try to find a way to engage and engage in a violent way, to fight police. And that’s what has police so concerned, because they’re worried about the students that these individuals have co-opted, that’s their belief, and they’re worried that they could get hurt and they’re certainly worried about the lives of their officers. So, that’s really the concern. That was the reason why you had the press conference earlier today and that’s why you’ve seen such an escalation over the last eight to twelve hours and police have [been] concerned about what’s going on at Columbia University. So, that’s why you are seeing the response tonight.”
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