> “Walking while Black” laws, first created in California in 1925 as a safety measure and lobbied by the automobile industry, are controversial due to racist enforcement and because they shame pedestrians while giving more protections to cars on the road
The crackdown on Columbia University students by the NYPD was spearheaded by Rebecca Weiner, who is a faculty member of the school. Weiner, a Columbia professor, heads an NYPD intelligence division that operates an office in Tel Aviv.
Weiner attributed the need for the violent raid to the students' rhetoric.