They definitely charged multiple times, said Egypt Staley, 22, of Washington Heights.
He told the New York Daily News: Some people were just being grabbed off the sidewalk. Some people were not even facing them. They surrounded us. People were trying to leave. Some people were like, How can I even leave?
Helen Guzman, 30, told the paper: They were really violent. Cops were pushing, shoving folks, pummeling people, tackling them.
The area was all quiet by around 10pm, according to social media.
NYPD attacking protesters at City Hall Park pic.twitter.com/BHtH76kyde Isabelle Leyva (@isabelle leyva) January 19, 2021
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Tuesday defended the police response, telling NY1 that police officers aren t the ones painting graffiti, NBC News reported. When you march from Brooklyn over a bridge, you try to shut down the traffic on the bridge, he said Tuesday. You re bringing bottles. You re bringing graffiti. You re spray-painting our city. This is our city. You re spray-painting to burn our city down. This isn t actions that are caused by police officers, so that s a news flash for the AG, Shea said. This is actions caused by people that want to destroy our way of life and our city and we re not going to let it happen,” he said.
Turn away for a moment from Washington D.C.’s Trump-loving, cop-assaulting “protesters” to read New York Attorney General Letitia James’ new suit about the NYPD’s summer beating up and arresting lawful and peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters on the watch of a mayor who won that office on a pledge to reform the police but who’s ended up as a hostage to his own department.
NEW YORK
New York’s attorney general sued the New York Police Department on Thursday, calling the rough treatment of protesters against racial injustice last spring part of a long-standing pattern of abuse that stemmed from inadequate training, supervision and discipline.
Atty. Gen. Letitia James’ lawsuit includes dozens of examples of alleged misconduct during the demonstrations after George Floyd’s death at the hands of police, including using pepper spray and batons on protesters, trapping demonstrators with a technique called kettling, and arresting medics and legal observers.
“We found a pattern of deeply concerning and unlawful practices that the NYPD utilized in response to these largely peaceful protests,” James said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.