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Task Failed Successfully: The Cracked Columbia Takeover and Expulsion

The sputtering 18-hour barricade-aided takeover of Columbia University by Hamas supporters ended last night faster than Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall; of course, the occupier’s task failed successfully only after being rightly pushed from the second story ledge of Hamilton Hall by NYPD riot officers. As a graduate of Columbia University, I was chagrined for the students who occupied Hamilton, and who are now about to learn the hard way why — the university does not not belong to the student — and those failed occupiers can now successfully weep into their expulsion letters.

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The ABCs of Surviving an Active Shooter Event

Well, we’ve sunk to the following new low arriving in a school email from university administrative powers –with a standard pre-warning that this is informational only, and not based on a current threat — with an active link to a NYPD Shield Safety Pamphlet included for good measure:

NYPD says: Avoid. Barricade. Confront. (ABC)

DHS says: Run. Hide. Fight.

The words are different, but the three actions are essentially the same:

1. Get out and get away, as quietly and quickly as possible, leaving your belongings behind.  Run. Avoid.

2. If you can’t flee, lock or barricade the doors, silence your cell phone and hide.  Hide. Barricade.

3. If all else fails, and only as a last resort, attack the shooter with whatever makeshift weapons you can find (scissors, portable fire extinguishers, chairs, etc.) to disarm and disable.  Fight. Confront.

Of course, call 911 to report the attack as soon as it is safe for you to do so.

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