New York Police Department (NYPD) Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard told Fox News‘ Neil Cavuto on Thursday that pro-Palestinian “encampments” at many universities are run by “outside agitators” with funds from “around the world.”
Sheppard said that the NYPD was “very confident” that “outside agitators and influencers” have been present at protests in the city. Often, these “professionals” manage to escape arrest.
“They may just fly in for a day or two, and leave,” he said, adding that they “travel around the country” between protests.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard to Neil: “We’re very confident that we know that these, outside agitators and influences were present and, will continue to be present at these protests.” pic.twitter.com/PKwKAdFyu8
— Neil Cavuto (@TeamCavuto) May 2, 2024
Sheppard added: “And they have funding. They are funded by private individuals around the world sometimes.” He said that students are often easily manipulated by the professional activists to join radical, often illegal, protests.
As Breitbart News noted, one veteran activist, Lisa Fithian, was allegedly seen this week at the site of the Columbia University protests, which ended with a violent occupation of a university building, and intervention by the NYPD.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been silent about the organizations, activists, and donors behind the protests. A lawsuit filed this week alleges that some of the organizations involved, such as Students for Justice in Palestine, are acting as propaganda arms for the Hamas terrorist organization that carried out the October 7 terror attacks in Israel.
Sheppard said that local officials have been in contact with different universities, but did not mention the DOJ.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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