42 Black Lives Matter Activists Arrested at NYC Protest Against Police Violence

Manhattan, NY — Of the more than 1,000 Black Lives Matter activists who marched miles upon miles through Midtown Manhattan and up into Harlem late Thursday night through Friday morning — expressing pain and rage over three police killings of black men in three different American cities this week, including in Brooklyn — 42 were arrested, according to the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

In the most dramatic arrest spree of the night, dozens of NYPD officers rushed a group of protesters who refused to move out of the intersection at Seventh Avenue and West 42nd Street.

A Patch reporter watched as three of the activists, after resisting arrest, were tackled to the cement, pinned under officers' knees.

Another man was flung off his bicycle in the scuffle.

Minutes later, a city bus filled with NYPD officers and at least two dozen activists made its way through the intersection, carting the detained off to the department's Central Booking office in Lower Manhattan. A line of cops stood between the bus and the crowd.

Frantic, a protester on the sidewalk of Seventh Avenue called for a people's mic. (Wherein other nearby protesters know to repeat his sentences in unison, amplifying them for the greater crowd).

A spokeswoman for the NYPD said Friday afternoon that with everything going on in Dallas and around the country, she was too busy to provide Patch with names or arrest numbers for the 42 protesters taken into custody.

The vast majority of them were charged with disorderly conduct, issued a summons to return to court and released Friday, she said.

However, four were still being held at Central Booking as of Friday afternoon and were scheduled to be arraigned in court.

One of these four was charged with disorderly conduct; two others were charged with "obstruction of government administration"; and the fourth — identified by police as Upper East Side resident Caleb Perkins, 32 — was charged with felony assault and resisting arrest, according to the NYPD.

Perkins was allegedly "linking arms with other protesters in the street and refused to disperse," the police spokeswoman said. "When officers tried to arrest him, he was running away flailing his arms. And when they finally got him, he elbowed one of the cops in the face, causing lacerations."

Patch has been in touch with the National Lawyers Guild, the go-to org for local Black Lives Matter protesters seeking attorneys, for more information about those in custody. (We'll update this post with any new details.)

"We do have member attorneys at court now," Susan Howard, a representative for the Guild, said Friday. "We will provide volunteer legal representation."

Public sympathy for Black Lives Matter protesters arrested in NYC overnight was somewhat dampened and overshadowed by the shocking assassination around 10 p.m. of five police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest being held simultaneously in Dallas, Texas.

In a grim press conference held at police headquarters Friday, NYPD top brass said that to avoid a Dallas-type attack during additional Black Lives Matter protests scheduled in NYC over the next few days, a "substantial police presence" would be deployed.

"We will, as we did last night in 40 instances, to make arrests where appropriate," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said.

Bratton's No. 2, NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill, elaborated. "People have a right to protest — a lot of emotions in the country right now — but there comes a point when that starts to interfere with the rights of other New Yorkers," he said. "We need to step forward and make summary arrests."

Then the Mayor Bill de Blasio stepped in.

"The police will instruct the protesters as to what's appropriate to do, where's appropriate to be, and they will make very, very clear to those protesters what those limits are... ," he said. "The protesters need to be very clear about the fact that once the police warn them they are subject to arrest, that's a very, very serious statement, and anyone who does not abide by the instructions of the police will be arrested."

De Blasio also urged protesters to "really recognize the pain that our police are going through right now, and to be very respectful."

"The police are there to protect their First Amendment rights," the mayor said. "Protesters owe it to the police to be respectful."

The NYPD has received as many as 17 violent threats toward its officers this week, according to police officials.

None of the threats have been deemed credible so far, Bratton said, but they're still under investigation, to "see if there's any linkage to New York."

Bratton drew parallels at the press conference between the officers killed in Dallas this week and two officers killed in NYC in 2014, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality and racism in America.

The two attacks were "eerily similar," he said.

Witnesses at Friday's Black Lives Matter demo in Dallas, in general, reported a peaceful atmosphere and respectful interaction between police and protesters.

In Manhattan, there were ups and downs. We watched one white, 30-something protester scream into a middle-aged black cop's face: "Next time you get hurt in the line of duty, I hope you f----n' die."

But we also watched a black protester approach the same cop later in the night and thank him for his service. The cop looked straight into the protester's eyes, patted his left breastbone with his right fist, and mouthed: "Thank you."