I grew up by the latchkey kid motto: Don’t talk to strangers.

The media’s fixation on Columbia defined its image as the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests on American college campuses, fueling political discourse through wall-to-wall news coverage and international headlines.

West Harlem voters will have a final opportunity to select the next New York State Assembly member for District 69 in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. The race to succeed long-time Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell is the most competitive the district has seen in over two decades.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is moving to dismiss the case against Malaika Friedman, the former Columbia College student who faced felony hate crime charges for allegedly assaulting an Israeli School of General Studies student on Oct. 11, 2023, in front of Butler Library.

On the 56th anniversary of the 1968 police sweep, officers once again surged onto Columbia’s campus to clear occupied Hamilton Hall. In 1968, the New York Police Department beat and arrested hundreds of students who occupied five buildings in protest of the Vietnam War and the planned construction of a gym in Morningside Park.

Dozens of protesters occupied Hamilton Hall at approximately 12:30 a.m. on April 30, demanding full University divestment from companies with ties to Israel. The protesters renamed Hamilton “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Jan. 29.

Editor’s note: This article deals with topics and imagery of police brutality.

Forty-six protesters arrested for occupying Hamilton Hall were charged with criminal trespassing—a class B misdemeanor. All 46 pleaded not guilty to the charges.