Hunter College Lecturer Arrested for Assaulting Officer at Protest

Aida Riddle, 36, from Brooklyn, was taken into custody on June 3 following the incident at Delaney Hall in Newark. The self-described “black and queer emerging fiction writer” now faces charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest, Newark Police Department confirmed.

Riddle served as an adjunct lecturer at the taxpayer-funded Hunter College on the Upper East Side while completing her MFA between 2023 and 2024. She has since transitioned to freelance writing and poetry, her LinkedIn profile indicates.

Her creative work includes writing an episode for “50 States of Fright,” a television series produced by Sam Raimi that premiered on the now-defunct Quibi platform in 2020. However, she did not receive credit on the show’s IMDB page.

Beyond screenwriting, Riddle has contributed to obscure literary outlets including Expat Press and Orca Literary magazine. One particularly inflammatory 2021 piece titled “I am Eating Myself Alive” took aim at Republicans with vivid imagery.

The story referenced GOP members in grotesque terms, as New York Post reports, comparing them to a snake consuming its own tail in what she described as eternal violence.

Her father, Anthony Riddle, has built a career in left-leaning media circles. He has served as senior vice president of BRIC Arts in Brooklyn and held positions at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Atlanta’s People TV, and the Minneapolis Telecommunications Network.

Before her arrest, Riddle worked as an outreach associate at Brooklyn Public Library, where her responsibilities included corresponding with prison inmates and recommending books to them.

She declined to provide comment when contacted.

Hunter College recently drew criticism for advertising a professorship in “Palestinian Studies” that opponents argued unfairly targets Israel with accusations of settler colonialism, genocide, apartheid, and infrastructure devastation.

With information from New York Post