‘We’re Showing Respect For Protesters, But You Need To Go Home,’ De Blasio Says After Clashes Over Curfew

From CBS New York:

June 4 2020

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police and protesters clashed near the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges after curfew went into effect Wednesday night.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said he saw officers being very aggressive toward peaceful demonstrators and yelling “mayor’s curfew!”

“People were literally nonviolently protesting in the street and they started getting whaled on. When I first came up, when they came off of the bridge, I came up and we were walking toward them and I see the aggression. I came up and I asked, ‘What happened? Just tell me what happened,’” he told CBS2. “‘You know what happened, you know what happened.’”

Social media videos showed officers using batons and confiscating bicycles.

WATCH: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Daily Briefing On Protests And Pandemic

During his daily briefing, Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked to clarify whether peaceful protesters are allowed out after curfew or not.

“We’ll be reviewing any new information that came out of last night. I will, I know the commissioner will. If there’s anything that’s a concern, a problem, anything questionable, anything inappropriate, it will be followed up on immediately,” he said. “But I want to emphasize, I don’t think there is anything but clarity. If we say there’s a curfew at 8 p.m. and that folks are being told consistently ‘there’s a curfew here and we’re showing respect for protests but you need to go home,’ and if at a certain point officers say, ‘OK, it’s time, we need to go now,’ people need to listen to that.

“It’s not an unfair action to say, in the context of a crisis, in the context of a curfew, there is a point where enough is enough,” he added.

Police said approximately 180 people were arrested, compared to roughly 200 the night before — and 700 the night before that, when looters ransacked stores in Manhattan in the Bronx.

Read more at CBS New York