As protests over the war in Gaza raged and led to mass arrests at Columbia University and other New York City colleges this past spring, some elected and law enforcement officials claimed that much of the unrest was spurred by agitators from outside the Ivy League campus.
At Columbia, less than a third of the more than 100 people the police detained had no affiliation to the institution, officials said. But on Monday the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg Jr., announced the indictment of one of the most visible outsiders. James Carlson, a Brooklyn lawyer and activist, on charges of arson and criminal mischief. Prosecutors said he ignited an Israeli flag with a lighter and broke into a university building.
“This defendant’s alleged activity went beyond legal and peaceful protest,” Mr. Bragg said in a statement announcing the charges against Mr. Carlson, 40, an attorney from Park Slope. “This type of behavior will not be tolerated.”
As protests convulsed campuses nationwide, Mr. Carlson was one of about 50 people arrested at Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus on April 30 after they occupied Hamilton Hall, an academic building, police said. A New York Times review of police records showed nine of those people appeared to be unaffiliated with Columbia.
Mr. Carlson faces four years in prison if convicted of the charges — a felony and three misdemeanor counts — associated with the break-in and arson. (Mr. Carlson also faces a separate case on charges of trespass inside Hamilton Hall, where access is reserved for students, staff members and their invited guests.)
Of those arrested at Columbia, Mr. Carlson appeared to be one of the few with a history that included legal entanglement in a protest, the Times analysis found. Mr. Carlson, who is Jewish and goes by the name Cody, appears to have protested on behalf of a wide variety of causes, including Black Lives Matter, immigration policy and animal rights, according to social media posts. In 2005, he was arrested at a protest in San Francisco against the G8; the charges were ultimately dropped.
The New York Times