Forward with indycar because were with everybody xiao powering progress im Melanie Zanona in washington and this is cnn on your screen right now, you can see what weve been watching develop over the last hour or so, police have moved into Columbia University to move those propalestinian demonstrators out of the building that theyve occupied since last night, hundreds and hundreds of Law Enforcement. You can see have swarmed onto the campus or in the case of the screen, youre looking at right now, the picture youre looking at right now, just off campus, we have seen Law Enforcement move people onto buses presumably under arrest. Weve also seen the police simply move people off the campus and let them go on their way. We have seen no violent encounters but billy, between police and protesters as of now, when we have seen police move into Hamilton Hall itself, that is the building that was occupied overnight by these protesters. Let me read you a statement from Columbia University which explains how this all has been taking place over the last hour or the Statement Reads a little after 9 00 p. M. This evening, the nypd arrived on campus at the universitys request. This decision was made to restore safety in order to our community immunity. We regret the protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions after the University Learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied vandalized, and blockaded. We were left with no choice columbia Public Safety personnel were forced out of the building and a member of our Facilities Team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation. The statement continues, the leadership team, including the board of trustees, met throughout the night and early into the morning, consulting with Security Experts and Law Enforcement to determine the best plan to protect our students in the entire Columbia Community. We made the decision they say early in the morning that it was a Law Enforcement matter and that the end nypd were best positioned to determine an execute the appropriate response. This is important what they say next, we believe that the group that broke into an occupied the building is led by individuals who were not affiliated with the university sadly, this dangerous decision followed more than a week of what had been productive discussions with representatives of the west lawn encampment. They go on to say theyd been moving people out all day resulting finally, in what you are seeing on your screen tonight. This is just one of the images that we have our eyes on right now again, this is just offcampus. Lets go right to Julia Vargas Jones cnn producer who was on campus for most of the de, right in front of Hamilton Hall, but was just moved off. Julia tells what youre seeing now, whats happening, where you are john just going to swing around a little bit so you understand where we are. This is Amsterdam Avenue and this is one 14 up this way. I dont know how much you can actually be. Im sorry, im just kind of walking through the ground. This is where we were pledged were pushed out Columbia University through those gates and pushed into this its not really a cattle because were not getting arrested, but we were pushed into this area with barricade myself. Im assuming that Columbia Universitys and hundreds of others, people that were protesting in sayyed. Were also pushed out. People that were making this Human Chain Outside of Hamilton Hall. They were pushed out. They made another Human Chain Outside, hundred and 14 feet and eventually nypd just forcefully remove them. They did not get arrested. This is like teeth difference here. They looked like for me, i cant tell you if there were not and then weve got pushed into this little area right now. Its a standstill if i. Can go into get my thing its very its very difficult to understand where i believe wants us to go eventually right now, were just sitting here at this corner in the middle of the protests with nowhere else to go up here, up this way, we have bosses and mike pz boss says, i cant tell if there are people inside those buses or not moving that way. And then now we see a emergency medical vehicle making turning into one 14th street they are going this is the way that they pushed all in all of the protesters and journalists. So not sure all of this is blocked off and believes. Is not letting us move anywhere else. This is where we have to say for the time being, julia, it hang on one second, just so people understand there is Amsterdam Avenue which runs North And South. There is broad wheres runs North And South in between broadway and amsterdam is Columbia University basically between 143 in 100. Or higher and 18th street, if you go up a little bit further north of that so julia is on one end of the university where people have been pushed out. Two questions quickly, julie, one, it looks like its raining now, if you can confirm its raining now, which may have an impact it may have an impact on the crowds. They are that people will still outside and who more than people youre looking at a map right now, just what is describing you can see northsouth broadway, who are the people standing beside you john, there is no nowhere for us to go. I dont think that we can get out of here right now this is i see a lot of students, a lot of students press lot of people with journalism, which is where i what im affiliated with as well and we were asking that more just outside Hamilton Hall, a protesting, so its a mix of students, people that were there protesting that we dont know in if part affiliate Nobody University are not this is just the situations and then just pushed us all into the same corner at one and amsterdam all right. Julia vargas jones stay safe. Dont go far let us know if there are any developments where you are. Want to bring in john miller, cnn senior Law Enforcement and Terror Analysts right now. John, i have to say over to the corner, my eye saw you on the phone, which generally means youre finding out information once the latest your hearing on what is happening think up at columbia. So Police Obviously swept the group that was in front of Hamilton Hall off some of them who ended up on those buses, are those are gonna be people who are in custody those who are swept out through the gates are people who elected not to be arrested and agreed to leave so were going to have some arrest numbers, but probably coming to us later because theyre operating out of multiple locations to do that tally. They did make entrance into Hamilton Hall from what i understand. And this is all preliminary, so you have to assume some of it could change that there werent a great deal of people in terms of numbers inside the building when they made entry, they used Distraction Devices or what we would call a flash bangs. These are things that go flash and then bang so that they could overcome any resistance. Booby traps or anything that was waiting for them inside. And then they did a floor by floor search, which did not produce a lot of people. Theyre going from the second to last floor now to the top floor. So the building is nearly cleared in the first instance, theyll do a secondary search just to clean up behind that but thats pretty much where we are now. So if you talk about what, what are reporter on the scene was saying about people were pushed out, they were put into pens it feels like from a tactical standpoint, they want to create a corridor, a portal so that when they have these people who are under arrest on these buses, that the buses will have a clear path out and that the street will be open and not occupied and they can take them down to this mass the rest Processing Center unknown number of arrests. You say. So far dozens, hundreds, any sense im going to just based on the visuals, it appears to be at least dozens that could trip the triple digits because there were large number of people there. But as we learned from ms vargas, a lot of them more pushed out of the gates. And those are people who decided to forgo the process of being arrested. Now, things have developed their over the last couple of days protest leaders from out of town, people like lisa 50. And who is the author of the book . Shut it down . Who is very adept at Coaching Groups on how to do protests, how to do disruption how to do vandalism and physical damage, how to handle mass arrest situations have been up there talking to them, working with them. So a lot has changed over the past 48 hours in terms of where they were. All right. We are being told dozens have been arrested. That is so far we also did get word from Julia Vargas Jones on the scene that a lot of people were simply moved away, pushed away and i imagine it is to an officers discretion whether tool right asked are just remove people from the premises. John miller just reporting that the police who did enter Hamilton Hall used flash bangs. They move through fairly quickly and there were not a lot of people actually in Hamilton Hall and they are close. They think to clearing the building or at least seeing every part of the building one interesting point to add there what were seeing on social media as reports from students saying that the tear gas was deployed. The nypd almost never uses tear gas and saying that they did not use tear gas tonight. I think thats the smoke from the flash bangs that theyre probably reading as that yeah. And you were looking at police now walking past one of our camera is right there in a mass movement, unclear whether they are moving to Hamilton Hall 100 moving away from Hamilton Hall with us that also its Philippe Rodriguez then retired nypd officer. Its just explain what john just said to us about using the flash bangs to get and we did hear from a Police Spokesman a short time ago, who did reiterate what john just said, which is that the nypd does not use tear gas . Correct. But how do you imagine they went through that building . Its almost like a tactical situation where the almost thing is to get through it safely so a flash bang is just a very long Concussion Grenade and its made to do is disorient the person. So if they had a preemptive type of tactical de, that theyre going to attack an officer it now make some also a little bit dizzy because it messes with equilibrium. So it does give the us is a tactical advantage. We never want to go in there with the use of excessive force. So we can mitigate that from the beginning, it was a good tactical choice to use them its just not often seen in new york city. Shimon prokupecz, if you are with us, not sure if we have shimon right now shimon, you can hear me. I am here. Im here it was a sense of what youre seeing okay. So were on amsterdam onesixteenth, so were outside Hamilton Hall here, but this is where the police went in you know, its just such a struts, such Strategic Planning that went into this you just wonder what how much time was the nypd planning for this . Because the way they came in here just over my Left Shoulder im going to try to show you. Can we just show i just want to show this side over here. Is there a way to do the number of Emergency Services vehicles . John, ive never seen this kind of response at a scene. I mean, there are at least a dozen to 20 Emergency Services vehicles here then of course, we saw many of them walk to this heavily armed truck. Its what they call a bear cat. And then they walked up through that window and then entered Hamilton Hall. Its just a stunning pictures to think this is a University CullumColumbia University that the police are entering in such a way because the doors were barricaded. The group broken in the morning and its been there all day. They unfurled flags here or signs here today, theyre up on the roof who i want point. So the nypd really spent a day planning for this and then surged i mean, hundreds, if not at least 1,000 officers here. I mean, you have officers from the search teams, you have officers from other precincts, the Emergency Services officers. The response was just enormous now, most of the officers are just standing around. Were seeing some protesters were hearing the chance a are gathered outside here. Some are up here on a bridge, all watching to see whats going to happen and what the next steps will be right now, all eyes and everything is on Hamilton Hall as we await to see what the next steps are are the police going to bring anybody out from inside and you can hear the protest. Is there shouting shame at the officers every time a group of officers would move through an area, we would hear that shame, shame towards the officers. But this is such an escalation here. But what started it . We have to remember is what happened here early this morning you know, the fact that you had outside groups the nypd has said so the college has said so the fact that they broke in to this hall, the fact that they snuck onto the campus we believe someone who has not gone around 2 00 yesterday when the campus would allow the press, the media to get on on on the campus of the college they snuck on and so they spent the morning, Early Morning planning this and they got inside and this was a game changer and just talking to sources all day john, they were waiting, they were waiting all day to get word from the college that they could do this. The nypd wanted to do this. They felt it was necessary, it was needed, and there was a lot of concern that if they didnt do this today this would only escalated. There were concerns for other members of outside groups coming in trying to escalate this even further sewing doing this, i mean, these are going to be images that are going to are going to last a lifetime, right . This kind of response on a university in the United States in many ways, sometimes its just unfathomable and such, in such a situation. But thats exactly what happened here. The response was, john, ive covered so many protests through the years here in new york, especially ive never seen a response like this. They came prepared they came in force and they came to send the message and right now, were just seeing so many of the officers still out here standing around. Things are calm, people are chanting we could even here are some. It sounds like chance that are coming from inside the campus as the police are just standing around. And right now really drawn. All eyes are on Hamilton Hall as we await to see if anybodys brought brought out. And what the next steps are here. Yeah. Shimon prokupecz, who was on the street. Theyre near that enormous Police Presence. I would just note that as big as the Police Presence and as many of these protests as weve all covered, one thing that we have not seen here yet that we often see almost always see is a rash of injuries or violent clashes. We havent seen that yet with our eyes here. Thats not to say it hasnt happened and we wont learn of that shortly. But this has seem fairly organized so far. Lets get right to Miguel Marquez. Right now, miguel, you are just so people know its the right side of our screen where miguel is. Tell us what youre seeing miguel yeah. So were on 114th street just near Amsterdam Avenue. This bus that you are looking at here, this is the second bus filled with the recipes that is now leaving this area its heading toward Amsterdam Avenue. When it gets down there, the last bus that tried to get out, you can see all the people on there that are arrested. Still shouting, still yelling, many of them wearing keffiyehs. Theres a large number of people who are trying to block the buses on Amsterdam Avenue as they get down there. Police moved down. There are a large contingent of Police Officers down there to control that crowds the buses can get out. We have seen dozens of people arrested the gates just here where im sitting next to. If you go up that gate and took a rights, youd be basically at hamilton the hole. So it sounds like if there werent many people in there that most the people that weve already seen commodities, gaetz, probably came from Hamilton Hall. What im curious about ar