New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the New York Police Department crackdown on campus demonstrators at Columbia University and City College of New York, telling ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the protests escalated into criminal activity and violence when protesters took over a building and vandalized property.

“We want to ensure we protect democracy and the right to protest, but we have an obligation that when those protests reach the point of violence, … we have to ensure that we use a minimum amount of force to terminate what is perceived to be a threat not only by our intelligence, but also the school and college officials,” Adams said.

The mayor added that universities should go ahead with their graduation ceremonies and not cave to pro-Palestinian demonstrators seeking to disrupt the events.

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