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 the boarded-up Zumiez, a high-end skate business that looters hit on Monday night, 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 to marchers to return to 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.”
Another trapped protester, Daniel Navetta, 39, said “we got all the way to the front, and there were lines of police officers in riot gear. They told us that in 10 minutes they would let us in. Half an hour passed and they wouldn’t let us get across.”
“What’s important is to stand with our community amidst our friends, and the people we care about, who deserve to be treated fairly and equally,” Navetta added.
Meanwhile, some 300 emboldened marchers about 9 p.m. trashed a Verizon store at Fulton and Broadway, and then made a play for the Brooklyn Bridge, which remained closed and guarded by cops. Instead, they went on a furious window-busting spree along Canal Street. There were no arrests though cops followed the trail of destruction.
Spilling onto onto Broadway, window-bashing continued — and looters beat up six Guardian Angels, including founder Curtis Sliwa, as they stood outside a boarded-up Foot Locker store.
“It was a bad night but everybody came out oaky,” sadi Guardian Angel Skyler White, 37, of Brooklyn. He added that Sliwa “is on his way home. He had a jaw injury.”
“They pulled off the plywood and smashed a hole in the window, and when they came, we were standing at the door,” he said. “The police ran the guys off at least a couple of times.”
The anger and defiance was in stark contrast to an earlier protest at NYPD headquarters at One 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 One 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 Avenue near Gracie Mansion — as helicopters hovered above. But 10 NYPD motorcycles blocked the York Avenue 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.
Protests expand globally in the wake of George Floyd’s death
Activists arrived to find volunteers handing out face masks, bottles of water and posters reading “Black Lives Matter” — a stark contrast with the violence seen in Midtown and the Bronx only hours earlier.
The 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.
NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, late Tuesday, said the second night of the citywide curfew “wasn’t as crazy” as Monday.
“A lot of protesters were marching around after curfew hours, which is fine,” he said. “We weren’t going to do that, but we haven’t had the crazy groups that we had. …we hope everything is going to stay good.”
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.”
Brandon West, 29, wore an orange vest and directed traffic as the march wound its way through the city. Part of his job was keeping the protesters together at a distance from police.
“It’s like a volunteer situation,” said the Harlem resident, an organizer with New York City Action Lab Inc. “It’s a call to arms. I’m holding the line, keeping people peaceful. If cops expect us to be disorderly and unruly, our job is to counter that.”
NYC protests continue over George Floyd’s death
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.”
Yet Rodriguez, who’s joined the ranks of protesters every day since the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, said she intends to ignore the city’s new 8 p.m. curfew and return to the streets once the sun goes down.
“It’s my right as an American citizen,” she said. “You can’t send me home.”
With Chelsia Rose Marcius and John Annese
