NYC says half of those arrested at 2 pro-Palestinian campus protests were not students

jeffw@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 105 points –
npr.org
33

You are viewing a single comment

City officials said 29% of the 112 people arrested at a protest at Columbia on Tuesday were not affiliated with the school. At the City College protest, 60% of the 170 arrested were not affiliated with the school, according to the city's press release.

"Not students" isn't as informative as "not affiliated with the school".

In that light, the numbers reported are much different between the two colleges and the headline should reflect that.

I've seen interviews where students from other colleges came over to protest. A "not affiliated" could still be a student, just from a different school.

29% of 112 and 60% of 170 is 134, which is 47.7% of the total. Math checks out.

Yeah, but the context matters. Columbia is the one that's been leading news stories, received the bulk of the commentary about "outsides agitators", and had some of the more extreme policing just occur that they're trying to justify.

This isn't just math. The language can be interpreted multiple ways.

I'd also argue that affiliated doesn't mean student.