Main Columbia protester is professional agitator, has criminal record - report

One of the most violent leaders of the Columbia University protests is a professional agitator, according to a New York Post report.

It may seem that the majority of protesters are grassroots activists and students. However, according to this report, citing a high-ranking police source, one of their key players – James Carlson – is  “a longtime anarchist."

The Columbia University riots have been at the forefront of international media for the last few weeks. 

Longtime anarchist 

James Carlson, also known as Cody Carlson, 40, is the son of millionaire advertisers Richard and Sandy Tarlow and owns a $3.4 million townhouse in Brooklyn, the article said. 

He has a criminal history dating back to 2005, according to the New York Post.

The New York Post claims he is a “rabble rouser and an attorney by trade” and is being investigated as a possible mastermind of the anti-Israel protests. 

Carlson was one of the people who broke into Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside on Tuesday night and was subsequently arrested on Wednesday morning by police. He was charged with burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, conspiracy and criminal trespassing, according to the NY Post.

Carlson later destroyed a camera inside a holding cell while in custody in the early hours of Wednesday morning, police sources cited by the NY Post said, for which he was charged with criminal mischief.

New York Post reported that the police later imposed additional charges on Carlson due to setting alight an Israeli flag, which was held by a 22-year-old protestor, and hitting him in the face with a rock. His charges now include hate crime, assault, and larceny.

Carlson was also reportedly present in anti-Israel protests in January. 

His first recorded run-ins with the police were in 2005 when he was arrested for violent behavior in “West Coast Anti-Capitalist Mobilization and March Against the G8,” during which protestors cracked a police officer’s skull, and attempted to set fire to a police cruiser.

Carlson was charged at the time with attempted lynching, malicious mischief, battery to a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, and more, according to the article.

Carlson has no known links to Columbia University. About 30% of those involved in the Hamilton Hall occupation were outside parties, according to Columbia and Mayor Adams, the New York Post maintained.