Manolo De Los Santos, 35, was seen being escorted away from the West 27th Street campus by two NYPD officers wearing riot helmets on Tuesday. De Los Santos, who was wearing a Palestinian scarf, was visibly agitated as he was led away from the scene. It remains unclear whether he was officially arrested.
Law enforcement sources revealed that a total of 50 protesters were detained during the unrest at FIT. The police intervention occurred approximately 10 minutes after a warning was issued to those who refused to leave the Chelsea campus, stating they would face trespassing charges.
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De Los Santos is the head of The People’s Forum (TPF), a Midtown-based nonprofit organization. The group had previously encouraged protesters at Columbia University to emulate the violent Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 before they stormed Hamilton Hall last week.
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De Los Santos, who has spent a significant portion of his life in the socialist country of Cuba, has made a name for himself by inciting protests in New York City. As the executive director and primary spokesperson for TPF, De Los Santos has frequently expressed anti-Israel sentiments. This includes praising the Hamas terror attack on October 7 as "heroic" and advocating for the erasure of Israel from history.
His involvement in the FIT protest is not his first encounter with law enforcement. De Los Santos was one of the 10 protest leaders arrested on January 27 when hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators gathered in Manhattan, partially obstructing the Brooklyn Bridge and attempting to disrupt operations at JFK Airport in Queens.
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