Live Protest Updates: Brooklyn Protests End With Dozens Of Arrests In Crown Heights

Here's the latest:

• Brooklyn Protests End With Dozens Of Arrests In Crown Heights
• Cops Shut Down Manhattan Bridge & Brooklyn Bridge To Protesters
• Protesters Briefly Kettled And Forced To Disperse On Upper West Side
• “I’m More Afraid Of My Soul Being Sick”
• Jamel Floyd's Family Protests Mistreatment At Brooklyn Federal Jail
• 92 New Yorkers Remain In Custody 24 Hours After Being Detained During Protests
• For a running list of protests scheduled for today, scroll down.
• Mayor de Blasio shrugged off calls to end the curfew.
• D.C.'s mayor is using the Third Amendment to evict National Guard troops from the city's hotels.
• The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced it will not prosecute non-violent protesters “in the interest of justice.”

Brooklyn Protests End With Dozens Of Arrests In Crown Heights

11:15 p.m. After the peaceful end to the standoff at Grand Army Plaza, the Brooklyn protests ended with dozens of arrests in the Crown Heights area around 10:30 p.m. tonight.

"A smaller group dispersed from Grand Army Plaza and was taking the sidewalk," said Naveh Halperin, who was with the protest the entire night. "We made it over here, and the police kept following us with a lot of vans and stuff. Then some people began to take the streets, and that was basically the conflict."

Among those arrested was Michael Carter, the director of communications for State Senator Julia Salazar. "I was standing on the sidewalk watching them arrest someone else, then they came at me," he told Gothamist while being arrested at Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street. "I said I was in my own neighborhood. They said 'that's nice.' I said they could hit me if they want. They attempted to chase me or whatever. And now I've been arrested." He added that he was "not really" hit by cops during the incident, which you can see in the videos below.

Health care worker Sage Miller, 24, met up with the larger group just after they left Grand Army Plaza. "We started walking in the street, and they immediately got really aggressive," Miller said. "They pushed over someone on a bike. They started pushing people and backing them onto the sidewalk, and protestors started talking a lot of shit."

She said things only escalated more from there: "They kept telling us, 'As long as you stay on the sidewalk, there's no problem'...then everyone started singing "Move Bitch, Get Out Da Way" and that's when they ran up and cornered a group of 20 people, and blocked everybody else off. All the people around me got pushed up against the walls and cuffed."

Police let her go after she told them she was a health care worker, and because, "I'm white, small and non-threatening." She explained why she thought it was so vitally important that people take part in these marches: "It's obviously astronomically fucked up what is happening," Miller said. "It's absolutely insane that people could be walking down the street asking police to stop killing black people, chanting or peacefully protesting, and they can still have an excuse and a justification to rush us and arrest us for literally doing nothing. And black people need to stop being killed by the police, and police need to stop being brutal in general."

Tense Standoff With Cops By Grand Army Plaza Ends Peacefully

10:30 p.m. A tense standoff between police officers and a large group of protesters by Grand Army Plaza ended peacefully tonight. Protesters feared they were about to be kettled by cops, who lined up on either side of them, as with other incidents in which they used the controversial tactic this week.

But thanks to a few protesters who helped deescalated the tensions—and the presence of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who was recording the confrontation, and City Councilmember Brad Lander—protesters were allowed to leave without anyone being arrested there. Kerry Paul, 26, and Randy Williams, 38, were able to help calm the situation down; Paul even fist bumped an officer in the midst of the standoff.

"I've seen how it goes, unfortunately," Williams told reporters at the scene. "I was out here [all week] rocking with these cops. I fought a couple of these officers, because they violated my right to protest...But I was tired of seeing people hurt, I got tired of messages not being received, because of anger, because of tension."

Lander told Gothamist that when the cops lined up, it was an "invitation to conflict."

"It sure felt like what was going to happen, was that there would be arrests and violence," Lander said. "The protester themselves are very disciplined. It was pretty beautiful the number of times a protester brought another protester in, kept calm." Faced with the choice of pushing forward if it led to direct conflicts, Lander said "the protesters chose peace tonight, not the NYPD. The NYPD drew a line, and they were perfectly happy to have arrests and violence."

As for what he called "the stupid curfew," Lander criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio for the "unconstitutional" policy. "I want the curfew done now," he said. "If there's no curfew tomorrow night, we're not going to have any conflict here, people can march...The longer the curfew is on, [we're gonna have] more aggressive policing, violence and arrests for nothing more than peaceful protest."

Cops Shut Down Manhattan Bridge & Brooklyn Bridge To Protesters

9 p.m. The NYPD has been rounding up clusters of protesters and arresting them for violating the curfew. A little over a dozen protesters who were left at the Upper East Side vigil outside Gracie Mansion were taken into custody by police after 8 p.m.

Police also briefly shut down the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge to both pedestrian and vehicle traffic after about a thousand protesters got there within the last hour.

After helping negotiate with cops to let protesters leave without arrests last night, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and City Councilmember Brad Lander are back out marching with those protesters, many of whom have turned back from the bridge and headed toward Grand Army Plaza and Barclays Center. Things briefly got tense with police, but have stayed peaceful for the most part.

Over at the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge, there are indications that police are prepared to carry out mass arrests of protesters:

Protesters Briefly Kettled And Forced To Disperse On Upper West Side

8:30 p.m. Over on the Upper West Side, a group of a few hundred protesters made their way from Columbus Circle over to the West 60s and 70s. The mood was peaceful as they formed a line at the front and chanted Breonna Taylor's name in honor of her birthday. However, just before curfew began, they were briefly kettled by police and told to disperse immediately.

"To me it's not just safety, it's just a smarter move. We go home, then we come back stronger Sunday, it's going to be beautiful," said John Sabier-Acosta, one of the organizers of the march. "I'm not trying to get them locked up...there are still people locked up right now who have been kept more than 24 hours."

"It's been going very peaceful today...but usually by the time curfew comes, police become very aggressive, they start kettling people, my friend got maced a few days ago, I was tackled a couple days ago," said 20-year-old James Norwood, who joined up with the UWS group after marching up from Midtown. "We want to show that the eyes are on the police, we've seen what they've done that last couple years. I was thinking, in 2014 it was Eric Garner, and it's 2020, I'm in college now, and this is still happening. We go quiet for a little while, and it goes on and on and on. It just seems like it's never-ending, and we have to change that."

“I’m More Afraid Of My Soul Being Sick”

7:45 p.m. A group of health care workers have come out to protest in Union Square. "The organizer tells me when so many have been clapping for them at 7 p.m. due to Coronavirus, they want to clap for protestors at 7 p.m. instead," NY1 reporter Shannan Ferry tweeted.

“My white coat is a privilege but it won’t save me from racism,” a medical student named Chioma said according to Guardian reporter Ankita Rao.

A few hundred protesters have assembled around Carl Schurz Park near Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side, where people knelt and sat for a silent vigil for about 30 minutes.

Bonnie John, 64, from the Upper West Side, wore a face shield to the protest. She said she was high risk for coronavirus, but she has marched for four days now. “I’m more afraid of my soul being sick,” she said.

Nick Bailey, 26, walked out of his apartment to get some fresh air and observe the candlelit memorial for Floyd and others. Asked how he maintains his energy, he said, “Because of coronavirus, I don’t have a lot else to expend my energy on.”

At around 7:45 p.m., the crowd made their way inside the park towards the perimeter of Gracie Mansion, which was closed off at all entrances. By the 8 p.m. curfew, people began to head their separate ways.

Jamel Floyd's Family Protests Mistreatment At Brooklyn Federal Jail

7 p.m. It's rainy and there are thunderstorms in the mix tonight, but thousands of protesters are out around the city for the ninth day of demonstrations against racist police violence. That includes a group of protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the federal prison where 35-year-old inmate Jamel Floyd died this week after being pepper-sprayed by correction officers.

"We're not the animals," said Samantha Anderson, Floyd's sister-in-law, who came in from Long Island to protest with her family. "They mistreat everybody on the inside of there. I know how they do us. I know how they leave us."

Protesters in Brooklyn and Manhattan marked what would have been the 27th birthday of Breonna Taylor, who was killed two months ago in Kentucky when police broke down the door to her apartment in an attempted drug sting, and shot her eight times. Taylor's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, but no charges have been filed in the case so far.

92 New Yorkers Remain In Custody 24 Hours After Being Detained During Protests

6:30 p.m. There are currently 92 New Yorkers still in custody 24 hours after being detained during the protests earlier this week, according to the Legal Aid Society.

Legal Aid announced it filed a notice of appeal on its emergency lawsuit, which sued the NYPD “on behalf of New Yorkers currently detained illegally in violation of New York's 24 hour arrest-to-arraignment requirement.” Those among the 2,000-plus arrested since last week during the various protests have described cramped, harsh conditions in the holding cells.

In 1991, Legal Aid won Roundtree V. Brown, which established the 24-hour standard between a person’s arrest to their arraignment.

“The NYPD is not above the law, and detaining New Yorkers for more than 24 hours after an arrest and denying them speedy access to a judge violates of our fundamental standards of justice," said Tina Luongo, Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society. “92 New Yorkers held illegally, deprived of their due process rights, is 92 New Yorkers too many. We look forward to securing a successful outcome in the Appellate Division.”

Arrests that the NYPD made during the 2004 Republican National Convention protests were ultimately deemed illegal in 2012.

Councilmember Says De Blasio Is "Gaslighting The People Of NYC"

1:35 p.m. At a joint press conference on Friday afternoon, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Brooklyn City Councilmember Brad Lander attempted to explain what they saw last night after they joined a protest in Fort Greene. After 10 p.m., the NYPD had kettled hundreds of protesters onto Washington Avenue, and mass arrests and violence seemed imminent, until Williams and Lander intervened, and police released demonstrators 20 at a time.

"The night before and the night before that, I saw things I can't explain," Williams said. "The mayor is delusional," Williams added. "I don't know what else to say."

Councilmember Lander said that the mayor's curfew "makes the enforcement arbitrary and capricious and random and escalates the violence," and he called it counterproductive and unconstitutional.

Asked about Mayor de Blasio refusal to acknowledge that peaceful protesters are being beaten night after night on the streets of New York City, despite the numerous accounts from protesters and journalists, Lander replied, "The mayor is gaslighting the people of New York City right now. And it really is dangerous."

Buffalo Police Shove And Severely Injure 75-Year-Old Man

11:33 a.m. Two Buffalo police officers have been suspended after video showed them shoving a 75-year-old protester to the ground and severely injuring him.

The incident happened shortly after the city's curfew went into effect on Thursday night. The video was taken by a WBFO reporter. A crowd of heavily armored and armed officers is seen approaching the man, who tries speaking to two officers.

"Move!" "Push him back! Push him back!" officers can be heard screaming, and they shove the man, who hits the ground with a sickening thud.

One officer tries to lean down to attend to him but another officer pulls him up. The police keep walking.

"He's bleeding!" someone shouts.

Warning: this video is extremely graphic.

According to WBFO, the man is in serious but stable condition.

At 8:51 p.m., the Buffalo Police department claimed the man "tripped and fell." The video was posted shortly after 9 p.m., and the Buffalo police commissioner announced the two officers would be suspended pending an investigation.

Around 11 p.m., Governor Andrew Cuomo weighed in.

Governor Cuomo's comments were notable, because just hours earlier, he denied that any NYPD officer had beaten peaceful protesters on Wednesday night, and rebuked a reporter for even asking him about it, calling it "incendiary rhetoric," despite ample video evidence to the contrary.

"A question itself can be a little offensive," Cuomo said earlier on Thursday. "'Police bludgeon peaceful protesters with batons for no reason?' That's not a fact. They don't do that. Anyone who did do that would be obviously reprehensible if not criminal."

Update: The entire Buffalo Police Department Emergency Response Team has resigned from that unit (but not the police force) as a show of support to their suspended colleagues who severely injured the peaceful protester. “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” John Evans, PBA president, said in a statement.

NYT Editorial Deems NYPD "Out Of Control"

In an editorial entitled "Mayor de Blasio, Open Your Eyes. The Police Are Out of Control," published by the Times on Thursday night, the paper's editorial board urges the mayor to either regain control of his police department, or fire his police commissioner, Dermot Shea.

"Mr. de Blasio appears unwilling to confront the reality that the department is failing to meet the demands of this moment. Officers have been allowed to behave in a manner that disgraces their mission to protect and serve, and violates the public trust," the board writes. "The mayor is allowing that to happen."

"If [Shea] cannot maintain control of his officers, Mr. de Blasio must find someone who can."

On at his daily press conference on Friday, Mayor de Blasio once again offered a fulsome defense of the NYPD's actions on Thursday night, while denying a Gothamist reporter's version of events that he personally witnessed.

Here's a running list of protests scheduled for today, Friday, June 5th, 2020

BROOKLYN
1 p.m. at Fort Greene Park
1:15 p.m. at Barclays Center
2 p.m. at Grand Army Plaza (Vigil)
4 p.m. meet at Maria Hernandez Park (Defund the NYPD) March from 83rd precinct to 81st precinct
5 p.m. at 44th Street and 6th Avenue
5:30 p.m. at 472 86th Street
7 p.m. at McCarren Park (Vigil)

MANHATTAN
1 p.m. at Christopher Street near the 1 train
3 p.m. at 125th Street and 7th Avenue (Vigil for Breonna Taylor)
6 p.m. at The Cathedral Church (1047 Amsterdam Avenue)
7 p.m. at Carl Shurz Park (86th and East End)

QUEENS
1 p.m. at 82nd Street and Grand Central Parkway (Jackson Heights)
5:30 p.m. at Astoria Park
6 p.m. at Court Square
6:30 p.m. at Queensbridge Park, Field #2

THE BRONX
1 p.m. at Poe Park (East 192nd St and East Kingsbridge Rd)
1 p.m. at 161st and Grand Concourse

STATEN ISLAND

12 p.m. at 545 Targee Street (Home Depot)