Queens Protesters Demand Justice For George Floyd

QUEENS, NY — Protesters gathered over the weekend in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights and by the Jamaica Center subway station to demand justice for George Floyd, a black man killed in Minnesota after a police officer knelt on his neck, and an end to police brutality that disproportionately targets black communities.

At a demonstration Sunday in Jamaica, organized by The Excelling Church and The BlaQue Resource Network, the commanding officer of the local police precinct drew cries of "thank you" after he joined protesters in kneeling.

NYPD Deputy Inspector Vincent Tavalaro, the commanding officer of the 103rd Precinct, and several other officers kneeled with protesters on Jamaica Avenue and Parsons Boulevard while one person recited the names of black individuals across the country who have been killed at the hands of police.

"We need more of this, to see and hear each other, to work together, to recognize that our differences are our strength," NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said of the video.

In Jackson Heights on Saturday, protesters assembled outside the NYPD's 115th Precinct station and chanted "black lives matter," according to a video posted by state Sen. Michael Gianaris.

Protesters on Sunday circled the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park while chanting "black lives matter" and "no justice, no peace," videos show.

The Queens protests contrasted starkly with the scenes that played out over the weekend in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where videos show NYPD officers shoving a protester to the ground, driving police SUVs into crowds of protesters, pointing a gun at protesters and pulling down one man's mask and blasting him with pepper spray.

Though the protesters were largely peaceful, some set NYPD vans ablaze, and three people were arrested by the FBI on charges that they threw Molotov cocktails at police vehicles.