NEW PALTZ – The New York State Police Investigators Association Wednesday blasted Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger’s response to the police disbursement of pro-Palestinian protesters from the SUNY New Paltz campus last Thursday evening.
She believes the police response was an unnecessary show of force. But the trooper association called the county executive’s comments “reckless and uniformed” and they pointed to a few protestors who tossed glass and metal bottles at the police as they approached. In one instance, a state police investigator sustained a significant injury when struck by a metal water bottle thrown from a crowd of protesters.
Metzger said she would never condone that behavior, but stands by her earlier statement.
“It was the size and the nature of the response relative to the situation on the ground,” she said. “One of my biggest concerns was exactly this, that this kind of disproportionate response would escalate matters.”
The troopers’ organization, though, said Metzger’s “inflammatory language does nothing more than pander to her far-left anti-police audience rather than acknowledging that the police did exactly what they are supposed to do in these situations, restore order.”
Over 100 protesters were arrested that night on the college campus.
On this past Tuesday, when protesters converged on an armaments manufacturer in Woodstock and refused to move after Sheriff Juan Figueroa himself talked with them for hours, they were arrested for trespassing.
