A “mob descended” on journalist Ami Horowitz when he brought an American flag into the anti-Israel encampment at the City University of New York, yet he was the one who ended up detained by the police, he tells The Daily Wire.
Horowitz says that he was attacked by the pro-Hamas mob three different times and was detained and questioned by police, all while his attackers were allowed to continue occupying the campus, undisturbed by the authorities.
“Before I had a chance to even wave the flag – I just took it out – this mob descended upon me,” Horowitz told The Daily Wire, explaining that more than a dozen people joined in on the “brutal” and “crazy attack.”
“It began with punches to the torso, to the kidneys, and one to the private parts,” he said. “I ran back a second time, they grabbed me again. This time there weren’t any punches thrown, but two guys grabbed me in an armlock and dragged me off the property, threw me down. I went back in a third time, this time more punches were thrown, one to the throat, a headbutt. We grappled a whole bunch.”
Journalist @AmiHorowitz went to @CUNY with an American flag. Immediately, violent extremists stole his flag and assaulted him.
The police detained him, and ordered him not to return to the protest with his “different views.” pic.twitter.com/YVa2AWzrYo
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 30, 2024
Once authorities intervened, however, it was Horowitz, not the attackers, who was detained.
“Security and the police showed up and then they detained me, which I thought was very odd,” Horowitz told The Daily Wire, saying he was told he would be arrested if he returned to the campus with or without a camera.
Audio obtained by The Daily Wire reveals police justifying their actions. An officer told Horowitz after he was detained that they were “trying to give these kids a space to protest peacefully.” When Horowitz responded, “That’s the problem, they’re not,” police blamed him.
“They are peaceful until they feel like their space is being invaded, because they feel like this is their fight,” the officer went on to say about the protesters on the public university’s campus.
Horowitz says no action was taken against his attackers, even after he laid out what happened.
“Even after I explained what happened, they didn’t go back out to grab these guys – knowing I have it on video because I told them I had, this was all filmed,” Horowitz said. “They didn’t say, let’s look at the footage, and let’s go grab these guys. They were still out there.”
Horowitz said their actions show that the protesters hate America just as much as they hate Israel.
“If you did a Venn diagram of those who hate Israel, and those who hate America, they’d be concentric circles,” Horowitz said. “It’s the administration, the professors … they’re feeding this garbage into the minds of these students. These students look up to these professors. It’s garbage in and garbage out.”
The attack on Horowitz comes as several New York universities have been taken over by similar encampments. Columbia University gave anti-Israel protesters multiple deadlines to clear out before police would be authorized to remove their encampment, but backed down three different times before announcing yet another deadline, which the Columbia protesters disobeyed. Protesters at the university have now barricaded themselves in Columbia’s Hamilton Hall.
#NOW Hamilton Hall is officially OCCUPIED after protesters and students STORM into Columbia University Building, breaking windows and barricading inside.
Additional lawn has now also been occupied by “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” pic.twitter.com/vMJcAivl7S
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 30, 2024
Protesters also occupied a building on the Fashion Institute of Technology campus and built an encampment on the New York University campus where over 150 people were arrested.
