MIGRANTS BASH COPS
Finest attacked during bust at Randalls shelter; Eric vows ‘review’
Startling video shows a group of NYPD cops being attacked by migrants at a shelter on Randalls Island.
Migrants surrounded about five uniformed officers and threw bottles and debris at them as the cops tried to apprehend a disorderly man inside the shelter last Thursday, the video posted on TikTok shows.
At one point, someone hurls a backpack, striking a cop in her head with it. A few moments later, a shelter resident with crutches tries to poke an officer.
Shelter residents are seen screaming at the officers in Spanish. Cops are holding up their batons to deflect the objects being thrown at them.
Cops were called to the shelter around 11 a.m. when a man began arguing with security guards and was “acting in a disorderly fashion,” an NYPD spokesman said.
The man, wearing a white T-shirt, was not a shelter resident, a source said.
In the video, the man can be seen on the floor surrounded by officers who are struggling with him and trying to handcuff him, enraging witnesses watching the arrest.
By the end of the two-minute clip, shelter security guards are called in to surround the officers, who pick up the man and remove him from the tent shelter.
“Security! Surround the cops! Surround the cops!” someone can be heard yelling off camera.
None of the officers were injured, police said.
The man who sparked the disturbance was charged, but the Manhattan district attorney declined to prosecute and the case was sealed, cops said.
In a press briefing at City Hall on Tuesday morning, Mayor Adams said his administration is undertaking “a review” of the incident.
“Because of that video, we’re going to do a review of some of the actions … because I have to make sure our Police Department is safe and that those residents who are there are also safe,” the mayor said.
Having watched the video, the mayor said he believes the officers “used the minimum amount of force to take the person into custody.”
There are about 3,000 adult migrants housed in the Randalls shelters at the moment, according to City Hall.
“The overwhelming number of them are carrying out their roles here, looking to take their next steps in their journey,” Adams said. “Do you have bad actors? Yes and any time you have 3,000 people who are placed in an environment that they cannot work, they have to sit around all day, things like this have the potential to happen.”
The video is another example of the ongoing strife between police and the city’s migrant population.
The division has become a lightning rod for criticism over the already polarizing migrant crisis in New York City, with some conservative local lawmakers calling for migrants involved in such incidents to be deported.
On Jan. 27, a group of migrants was caught on surveillance camera beating on an NYPD lieutenant and cop outside a shelter in Times Square.
As of Feb. 14, eight migrants have been arrested for assaulting those officers.
The Randalls Island shelter house asylum seekers coming into New York. It can hold up to 3,000 people.