Big Apple college campuses are woefully unprepared to respond to the fresh wave of “potentially dangerous” anti-Israel protests expected when students return to the classroom this fall, CUNY cops warned.
The CUNY officers, who blame a systematic dismantling of the public university system’s police forces for the lack of preparation, sounded the alarm after violent demonstrations erupted at campuses across the city in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
“The university is going into this under fire – they have no idea what’s going to happen. There’s no preparation,” a CUNY officer speaking on condition of anonymity told The Post.
CUNY schools were the scene of some of the ugliest campus violence in the five boroughs last spring — from the occupation of CUNY Graduate Center’s library to a series of violent riots at City College of New York (CCNY)’s Upper Manhattan campus that caused more than $3 million in damage.
Even with upcoming events like the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre and the presidential elections promising “turmoil,” CUNY officers said school safety officials have done no preparation whatsoever.
“There have been no meetings about any of this. Ever since the encampment ended, everyone went on vacation. There’s no ‘Let’s prepare for September,’” he said, noting the schools will likely have a cursory meeting to “check the box” but won’t form any actual battle plan.
“It’s going to be bad. Our numbers just aren’t there. If there’s a spontaneous protest that we don’t have any knowledge of, we’re going to be outnumbered – just by the sheer number of students enrolled, we’re outnumbered,” another officer shared.
Students will head back to CUNY classrooms on August 28.
Meanwhile, the officers’ fingers point squarely at CUNY Executive Public Safety Director André Brown, who took office in 2020.
Brown, they claim, epitomizes the post-George Floyd “hands off” policing approach that’s taken hold at universities and police departments across the country, emphasizing “de-escalation” above all, even while officers were being pelted with rocks at campus protests earlier this year.
At the same time, officers said Brown has steadily replaced trained CUNY cops with contracted private security contractors — who lack any formal law enforcement training, including how to handle crowd control, they claim.
“They just want them to observe and report. It’s absolutely zero. All it is is a window dressing of convenience. They don’t have any sort of requirements that we require for our civil service positions. They’re replacing the civil servants with contractors,” the officer said.
Officers say Brown’s approach to campus safety has gutted CUNY’s police force from within, causing attrition rates to skyrocket and department morale to plummet.
“There’s no retention anymore with our police. Our academy class used to be 100-to-150. We’ve got five now – five in the academy class. That’s how bad it got,” an officer said, bemoaning the inefficient use of campus safety funds.
“They pay is so low for these guys and they’re paying millions for contractors to be here with no training, no background,” he added.
“The safety of the campus community is totally not their concern. They’re not concerned about the students and the staff. They’re worried about their image and making sure the students express their freedom of speech.”
CUNY’s Public Safety Department did not respond to The Post’s request for comment from Brown. An email sent to Brown’s official CUNY email bounced back as undeliverable.
