Protesters and police outside Columbia University, April 30, 2024. (Luke Tress)

(New York Jewish Week) — A 40-year-old activist has been indicted on arson charges after burning an Israeli flag during a protest at Columbia University in April.

James Carlson, who is unaffiliated with the Ivy League school in Morningside Heights, took the flag after someone else had stolen it from a Jewish person at the April 20 protest, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. He then set it on fire with a lighter, the office said in a statement.

Carlson, a resident of Brooklyn, was also indicted for a subsequent incident in which he kicked and broke a glass panel in a police holding cell following his arrest at Columbia during an April 30 protest.

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He was charged with arson in the fifth degree, a misdemeanor, and several counts of criminal mischief, including one felony, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. He pleaded not guilty.

“This defendant’s alleged activity went beyond legal and peaceful protest. Committing arson in a crowded protest endangers the safety of others, and this type of behavior will not be tolerated,” Bragg said.

Carlson was a repeat protester on Columbia’s campus last academic year, when people who were unaffiliated with the university took a central role in demonstrations that inspired copycats across the country. In addition to the flag-burning incident, he was charged with trespassing after being part of the group of anti-Israel activists who broke into and occupied Columbia’s Hamilton Hall in April. The university called in police to clear the building, resulting in dozens of arrests, after which Carlson allegedly broke the glass panel in the holding cell. Most of those arrested were released without charges.

Carlson is not a student, staffer or faculty member at Columbia, Bragg’s office said. The son of the late advertising executive Dick Tarlow, he owns a multi-million dollar townhouse in Park Slope and has a history of arrests dating to 2005, according to the New York Post,. He is one of more than a quarter of the people arrested at the Hamilton Hall protest who were not affiliated with Columbia, according to the NYPD.

The role of outsiders in the protest had become a focal point in the aftermath of the police crackdown, and Mayor Eric Adams cited the alleged presence of “outside agitators” as a reason for ordering the NYPD to clear out the building.

The Hamilton Hall incident was the most high-profile clash in a year of protest and tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. The war has continued to impact the campus as a new school year has begun. Last month, three Columbia deans resigned after sending disparaging texts about Jewish students; then Columbia President Minouche Shafik resigned, citing campus turmoil; and weeks later, a task force investigating antisemitism at the school reported “crushing” discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students.

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