Protester From Queens Recounts Violent Arrest For AG Hearing

ASTORIA, QUEENS — An Astoria woman recalled getting cornered by cops, slammed to the ground, zip tied and then arrested while protesting earlier this month in The Bronx, joining hundreds of New Yorkers who testified Wednesday and Thursday as part of an investigation by the state attorney general's office into how police handled recent protests.

Kyla Savino was among more than a hundred people who were violently arrested on June 4 after NYPD officers ambushed an otherwise peaceful protest in the South Bronx by kettling, or containing, protesters just before the start of an 8 p.m. curfew, making it impossible for them to leave.

"They gave us no way to get home," Savino told New York Attorney General Tish James during a virtual hearing Thursday. "It seemed pretty planned what they were going to do."

As police officers pressed in on the crowd and started beating protesters with batons, Savino said she was slammed to the ground, then zip tied and handcuffed and loaded onto a bus with other protesters who'd been arrested.

The bus brought the group to Queens Criminal Court in Kew Gardens, where Savino said she was kept overnight in a cell with about 30 other protesters to await processing.

Savino was released about 4 a.m., and a jail support volunteer helped her get a ride home to Astoria.

She was left with a desk appearance ticket for a charge of violating Mayor Bill de Blasio's curfew order — and a black eye.

"It was a very violent experience," she said.

Protesters who testified Wednesday and Thursday tied much of the violence in recent weeks to the NYPD's crackdowns on protesters out after Mayor Bill de Blasio's 11 p.m., and then 8 p.m., curfew.

James tapped former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and The Policing Project Director Barry Friedman to help guide her office's investigation into the NYPD's treatment of protesters.

“The right to peacefully protest is one of our most basic civil rights, and we are working without rest to ensure that right is protected and guarded,” James said.