Columbia janitors trapped and attacked by anti-Israel mob file complaint, launching civil rights probe

Columbia University is facing a new federal investigation over allegations from two janitors who claimed to have been forced to scrub off swastikas on campus before later being attacked and briefly trapped by an anti-Israel “mob” during the takeover of Hamilton Hall last spring.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency tasked with enforcing civil rights laws in the workplace, has opened a probe into complaints from Lester Wilson and Mario Torres, who were forced to fight their way out of Hamilton Hall nearly a year ago, The Post has confirmed.

“We welcome the EEOC’s decision to open an investigation into Mario’s and Lester’s charges of discrimination,” former US Attorney General Bill Barr, whose firm Torridon is representing the two men, told The Post.

“Columbia has a legal and moral obligation to protect the civil rights of its students and employees. It must be held accountable when it fails to do so.”

It is not fully clear when the EEOC commenced the probe, but records seen by The Post show that the agency was working on the investigation last month.

Wilson and Torres, who had worked at the school for over five years, were both left injured as well as traumatized from the scourge of anti-Israel unrest that engulfed the Ivy League school and have since been unable to return to work as a result, according to the complaints they filed last October.

“Hours after President [Minouche] Shafik issued her statement [that the university had become ‘unsafe for everyone‘], an antisemitic mob assaulted two janitors inside Columbia’s historic Hamilton Hall, calling them ‘Jew-lovers,’” the two complaints for both men recalled of the Hamilton Hall takeover in April of last year.

“Columbia had indeed become unsafe for everyone, including the two janitors who were trapped inside Hamilton Hall. And for these two men, Columbia had for months been a hostile environment in violation of Title VII,” the complaints added.

Both men are making claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, alleging that they faced retaliatory harassment at the institution for “reporting antisemitic and racist conduct.”

It all began around November 2023, shortly after the bloody Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel sparked a war. Racist and antisemitic graffiti started to pop up, scrawled all around Hamilton Hall — and the campus’ janitors were forced to clean it up.

“Mr. Wilson recognized the swastikas as symbols of white supremacy,” Wilson’s complaint alleges. “As an African-American man, he found the images deeply distressing. He reported them to his supervisors, who instructed him to erase the graffiti.”

“No matter how many times Mr. Wilson removed the swastikas, individuals kept replacing them with more.”

Wilson lost track of how many swastikas he had to scrub, but his colleague Torres, who is Latino, pegged it in the dozens and eventually reached a point where he had enough, his complaint said.

“They were so offensive, and Columbia’s inaction was so frustrating, that he eventually began throwing away chalk that had been left in the classrooms so vandals would not have anything to write with,” Torres’ complaint alleged.

“However, Mr. Torres was reprimanded by his supervisor for doing so.”

Given the fact that Columbia University requires an electronic ID to gain entrance to Hamilton Hall, which is nestled on the school’s Morningside Heights campus, and the fact that the building was equipped with security feeds, the two janitors felt the authorities could’ve tracked down the perpetrators.

They had reported the deluge of anti-semitic, sexually obscene and racist graffiti at Hamilton Hall to campus security and concluded there was “no reason to believe” Columbia University “investigated any of the incidents” that had been flagged.

In one instance, around Dec. 6, 2023, Torres and Wilson observed masked protesters storm through Hamilton Hall chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and scrawling swastikas as well as other obscene graffiti in the building.

After Wilson reported that, he was told by campus security that “the trespassers and vandals were exercising their First Amendment rights” and that “nothing could be done,” per the complaint.

The antisemitic incidents on campus continued to ensue.

Eventually, anti-Israel protesters erected encampments in a nod to the wretched conditions scores of Palestinians lived in war-torn Gaza during the war.

Wilson’s union informed him in the spring of last year that Columbia University would offer overtime to custodians who agreed to tidy up the encampments. Despite his reservations, he opted to work a double shift and help clean the encampments, but quickly witnessed antisemitism, the complaint alleged.

“He spotted a colleague inside the encampment cleaning the mess within it,” Wilson’s complaint recounted. “He saw and heard members of the encampment shouting ‘Jew-lover’ and ‘Zionist’ at the colleague while he worked to clean up their mess.”

He later opted to return to his normal shift, not feeling safe at the encampment on the South Lawn, which is not far from Hamilton Hall. Torres had similarly complained about not feeling safe walking past the encampment on his way to work.

Then came the infamous occupation of Hamilton Hall, something that had been done during past protests over the last five decades such as the demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s.

Both Torres and Wilson had been working in Hamilton Hall on April 29, 2024, when a swarm of masked demonstrators stormed the building to take it over.

“Masked intruders obstructed Mr. Torres’ path at every turn,” Torres’ complaint detailed. “Mr. Torres had no idea that all the while rioters had been zip-tying shut the exits on the ground floor of Hamilton Hall.”

“Mr. Torres observed that what had initially seemed like chaos was actually highly coordinated,” the complaint added. “An unmasked woman and a masked man barked orders at the rioters, directing them to different areas of Hamilton Hall.”

Rioters had moved vending machines and zip-tied doors to barricade the exits and entrances. After deciding he was out of options, Torres decided to battle his way through the mob.

‘”I’m going to get twenty guys up here to f— you up,’” one masked rioter who had “violently” shoved Torres, threatened, per the complaint. “Mr. Torres pulled a fire extinguisher, which was within arm’s reach, off the wall to defend himself and replied, ‘I’ll be right here.’”

During that confrontation, Torres was repeatedly struck on his back by other rioters. After repeatedly navigating to blocked-off exits, he eventually found a way out that had been blocked by zip ties and a bike lock. Following his pleas, one of the rioters cut the zip ties and let him out.

Wilson had been separated from Torres during the havoc and had quickly tried to escape after determining the rioters were taking over. During his scramble to get out, rioters smashed furniture into him and pushed him repeatedly, per the complaint.

“He recalls saying, ‘I work here. Let me out,’” the complained alleged. “The rioters responded by laughing at him and mocking him. He remembers being told, ‘You work for the Jews,’ and ‘You’re a Zionist.’ Eventually, someone opened a door and Mr. Wilson was physically pushed out of the building.”

Rioters had seized Hamilton Hall not long after defying orders to disperse the encampments in April of last year. Eventually, the New York City Police Department intervened and cleared out the building, leading to over 100 arrests.

Days earlier, Columbia University had shifted most of its classes to remote learning due to the unrest on campus conditions on as reached a boiling point.

The Post reached out to EEOC for comment. Columbia University declined to comment on the ongoing investigation when asked by The Post.

Columbia University has faced intense scrutiny from the Trump administration over its handling of anti-semitism on campus, including by cutting over $400 million worth of funding.

The Ivy League school is also facing a probe from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), alongside dozens of other institutions of higher education.

President Trump’s team has also targetted the rioters, with his State Department and Department of Homeland Security searching to see if individuals on foreign student visas espoused support for Hamas or broke the law.

Most prominently, Trump’s team has moved to deport Mahmoud Khalil, one of the driving forces behind the Columbia University tumult. The courts have halted Khalil’s deportation pending litigation.

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Stephen Collopy

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