The governor of NY, and former cop, justified the police response to the anti-genocide protests at Columbia with a statement about "outside agitators". When pressed on that, the governor essentially said it was a gut feeling.
They were using the bike locks to claim that the protesters had ties to terrorist organizations, because "it's not the kind of thing a normal student has."
Despite the fact that the exact model of bike lock was part of a deal on bike locks advertised by the CU campus security on Facebook not 6 weeks ago.