NYPD BESIEGED BY FURIOUS PROTESTERS
Protesters hurl bottles, damage
Violent protesters charged a Brooklyn police precinct on Friday night on a day when thousands of fed-up New Yorkers hit the streets to protest police brutality and stand up for a man killed by Minneapolis police.
Several hundred police officers were rushed to the 88th Precinct in Clinton Hill, where protesters tagged police cars with profane graffiti like “F—the police,” broke their mirrors and wrecked them.
Crowds began moving toward the precinct around 8:20 p.m., said reports. Some in the group tried to rush the police precinct’s door, said law enforcement sources. Officers kept them at bay, and no protester got inside the stationhouse, said a high-ranking police source.
Between 50 and 100 people were arrested in the protest, said the source.
A police vehicle was set fire several blocks from the precinct, on South Portland Ave. near the entrance to Fort Greene Park, at around 9 p.m., said a Daily News reporter at the scene. After the fire was doused, the protesters set it ablaze again.
About 300 people gathered at the corner of Classon and Lafayette Aves., a block south of the precinct, said another News reporter.
Around 10:30 p.m., police pushed that crowd down Lafayette Ave. away from the corner. People screamed and tossed rocks, bottles and eggs at the cops, and set off fireworks — some present thought the fireworks were gunshots.
Several officers were hurt — including one who lost a tooth, one who had a bloody nose, and a police lawyer who may have dislocated a knee, said the highranking source.
The precinct is about 1¼ miles from the Barclays Center, scene of an earlier protest over the death of George Floyd, who authorities say was choked to death by a Minneapolis police officer on Monday.
Mayor de Blasio was in the area at around 10:15 p.m., and was meeting with Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, said spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein.
On Twitter, de Blasio said his aim was “deescalating this situation and getting people home safe … We don’t ever want to see another night like this.”
Among those arrested Thursday night were state Sen. Zellnor Y. Myrie and Assemblywoman Diana Richardson, Myrie wrote on Twitter. Both are Brooklyn Democrats. “We came in solidarity and to keep the peace. We are still proc
essing what happened,” Myrie tweeted.
Earlier, members of a crowd estimated at 1,000 tossed bottles at police and sometimes stormed barricades outside the Barclays Center.
“How do you spell racist? NYPD!” they yelled.
Numerous protesters there ended up under arrest, and a News reporter got video of one taken down by police.
“You’re choking him!” and “Chokehold!” protesters yelled as several officers held the demonstrators to the ground.
Those arrested were loaded onto buses driven by MTA employees. At least one bus operator stepped off the bus, refusing to drive the protesters from the scene — and that driver has the backing of his union, Transport Workers Union Local 100.
Earlier in Foley Square in Manhattan, hundreds of demonstrators flouted social-distancing guidelines at a “We can’t breathe” rally and vigil.
Some protesters at that rally also tossed water bottles and other objects at police.
But most of the protesters just wanted their voices heard. Behind a 30-foot banner with Floyd’s name, they filled Foley Square Park from Duane to Worth Sts.
“They might win the battle but they won’t win the war, because there are going to be people in 100 years talking about what we’re doing,” said Onni Adams, 20, a protester from Brooklyn.
“If there’s no change, we’re still going to be out here, and they’re going to know who we are.”
Floyd’s death wasn’t the only item on the protest agenda.
Participants also called on the city council to re-introduce and pass an anti-chokehold bill to make illegal the maneuver used by disgraced cop Daniel Pantaleo to take down Staten Island suspect Eric Garner in 2014.
The chokehold is banned by the NYPD, but its use does not currently carry any criminal penalty.
Organizers also called for the arrest of Amy Cooper, the white Central Park dog walker, who on Memorial Day called the cops on a black birdwatcher who recorded her when she refused to leash her dog as instructed by park signs.
Many of the Manhattan protesters headed over the Brooklyn Bridge to meet up with demonstrators at the Barclays Center, where a crowd watched during a standoff with police as a man stretched out in front of cops and said, “I can’t breathe. I need water.”
Around a dozen protesters were arrested, and cops at one point used pepper spray.
“The way, not just black people, but all people of color, are treated in this country needs to change,” said Sofia Carter, 27, of Brooklyn.
Protests were also held Friday in other cities, including Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The protest turned violent in Atlanta, were demonstrators smashed police cars and spray-painted over a sign at CNN headquarters.