STREETS HEAT UP AT NIGHT

Floyd protesters keep peace during day, but ignore curfew, face off with cops, smash windows later

Thousands of defiant protesters filled the streets around Gracie Mansion, Trump Tower, Battery Park and near Brooklyn’s Barclays Center Tuesday night to protest the Minneapolis killing of George Floyd as an 8 p.m. curfew took hold to tame days of rampant looting and arson.

The order was largely ignored.

Rogue marchers busted windows up and down Broadway hours after the curfew — and in at least one case, looted a boarded-up business on 13th St. and Broadway.

“We’re sending a message about black people and how our lives matter,” said skateboarder Prince Asiamah, 26, of Coney Island, adding that looting “comes from frustration. Why not loot these businesses? They don’t care about us but they love our culture.”

Ahead of the order, marchers screamed “f—k your curfew” as they tried, but were blocked by a blue wall of cops, to cross the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan. Skirmishes also erupted as cops formed a wall of officers and rushed a group in lower Manhattan on Morris St.

Across the East River, thousands jammed Atlantic Ave. to march to Barclays Center, where a flag saying “Black Lives Matter” was raised on a flagpole in front of the arena.

But when the mass marched onto the entrance of the Manhattan Bridge, a line of cops in riot gear rebuffed their entry onto the span. Protesters turned around without a fight, but immediately crammed onto the lower level to get around the police blockade.

Cops at the Manhattan end wouldn’t allow them to get out, either, initially, and there was about an hour-long standoff until access was reopened about 10:30 p.m. to marchers on the

Brooklyn side only.

“It’s tense. We’re in a standoff with the cops,” protester Kristy Janson, 34, said while blocked. “Everyone is being peaceful. Everybody is being respectful, including the NYPD in this moment. But they need to let us through. It’s our First Amendment right to express ourselves, and they are denying us this right.”

Meanwhile, some 300 emboldened marchers about 9 p.m. trashed a Verizon store at Fulton St. and Broadway, and then made a move for the Brooklyn Bridge, which remained closed and guarded by cops. Instead, they went on a furious windowbusting spree along Canal St.

There were no arrests though cops followed the trail of destruction.

Spilling onto Broadway, the window-bashing continued. And at one point, the rogues beat up six Guardian Angels who were standing outside a Foot Locker store.

The anger and defiance was in stark contrast to an earlier protest at NYPD Headquarters at 1 Police Plaza.

“I feel like everybody has this negative connotation that these riots are all rowdy,” said Breanna Rodiguez, 19, of Brooklyn, as she addressed a peaceful crowd at 1 Police Plaza on Tuesday afternoon.

“But we’re here to protest

peacefully because we as black people want to walk down the street and live out life like normal human beings We’re not a threat. My skin is not a threat.”

Activists arrived to find volunteers handing out face masks, bottles of water and posters reading “Black Lives Matter.”

Afterward, protesters, many with raised fists as they filled the streets, then marched through lower Manhattan as chants of “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” echoed through the mostly empty streets of downtown after they departed.

As the curfew approached, however, masses of protesters crowded onto East End Ave. near Gracie Mansion — as helicopters hovered above. But 10 NYPD motorcycles blocked the York Ave. entrance to E. 88th St. to keep them away from the mayoral residence.

Hundreds of others marched near Trump Tower on Fifth Ave., but moved on without incident.

Police brutality protests continued elsewhere around the country on Tuesday as well, including Houston and Los Angeles — where more than 2,700 have been arrested — while demonstrations in support were held in London and Paris.

A photo posted on Twitter showed three city cops taking a knee in support of the passing protesters.

Activist Carlene Pinto, who first started protesting after the 2012 police shooting of Bronx teen Ramarley Graham, wondered why Mayor de Blasio didn’t join the march and said she was unimpressed by the sight of city cops offering their support by making the Colin

Kaepernick-inspired gesture.

“We don’t want police to take a knee,” she said. “We want police reform now. In the richest city in the world, people of color are dying of coronavirus. But they’re dying of racism at a faster rate.”

The marchers were joined by NYPD Sgt. Arthur Smarsch, who said the tenor of the protest changes daily once it get dark. The afternoon march, in contrast to the Monday night violence, was passionate but peaceful.

“This is perfect,” he said. “This is their First Amendment right to be out here and speak.”