NYC placed under curfew as looters raid luxury stores
NEWYORK:NEW York was under a curfew that would last until Tuesday, officials said, after looters raided stores in central Manhattan, targeting some of the city’s top retailers. Upmarket fashion store Michael Kors on Fifth Avenue was among the luxury outlets hit, along with Nike, Lego and electronics shops across Midtown, before the 11pm to 5am curfew came into effect, AFP journalists said.
Groups of young people moved from block to block around the district, usually bustling with tourists but deserted due to the coronavirus pandemic, with entire streets blocked by police.
Images from local NY1 television showed some young people running out of a Best Buy electronics store before being apprehended by the police. Stores in the south of Manhattan suffered a similar fate, according to an AFP photographer.
The New York Times reported that the flagship Macy’s department store had also been targeted by looters.
Police did not immediately confirm this, simply saying that “numerous stores were hit” and arrests made “in the hundreds” across the city.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said a lot of stores around Madison Avenue had been hit and the situation was “really not acceptable.” As a result, he said the curfew would start from 8pm on Tuesday instead of 11pm. “The city is fully under control, and overwhelmingly calm and peaceful,” he nevertheless insisted on NY1.
The imposition of the curfew had been announced a few hours earlier by the mayor and New York state governor Andrew Cuomo after protests and looting during the weekend - notably in the trendy Soho district.
The mayor tweeted on Monday that “protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful today” but that some people were out to damage property and steal.