By: Mike Mustiglione
New Yorkers running wild were arrested in droves on Sunday night, many for looting. The action was sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis policeman.
Upscale stores seemed to be rioters’ preferred method of commenting on social justice issues, with stores like Nike Soho on Broadway and Bloomingdale’s playing host to the lawbreakers. At least one man was shot in the wee hours of this morning close to Spring and Crosby streets. Another man driving a silver Mercedes-Benz sedan nearby was also placed under arrest.
During a meeting with media representatives, Mayor Bill de Blasio summed it up by saying, “We had a long day and a long night yesterday in our city… The most important thing always is to protect the lives of all New Yorkers. There was a lot of activity around the five boroughs yesterday, well into the night. The bottom line, the most important thing, thank God, is that lives were protected. No loss of life last night or obviously in the nights before and the days before in these protests. As much as we know at this moment, no serious injury, one incident being looked at, but generally speaking, no serious injury to protestors or to officers.”
The mayor added that “Overall, even in a day where thousands of people were out expressing their views, expressing their frustration, their pain, their anger, their deep desire for change in locations all over the city, overall, what we saw was, overwhelmingly, peaceful demonstration. I’m definitely going to address some of the things we saw late in the evening that were not peaceful and not acceptable, but if you talk about the reality of the full day, we saw more and more the peaceful demonstrators coming to the fore and establishing a different tone, a different reality, people who are from communities want change, want it done the right way, the peaceful way, the democratic way, and that was more and more evident yesterday than in the last few days.”
A protester said during an interview with CBS2, “People from all over the place feel the same way. We’re all hurt, we’re all tired, and we’re all coming together. This is going to happen for a change.” “I just love seeing how everyone has come together and just come here to support one another,” said another protester.
Rioters soon made their down downtown across the Manhattan Bridge and connected with another group in Brooklyn, “where scenes were more tense. Some demonstrators staged a die-in protest, and police cars were painted with graffiti,” CBS added. “Throughout the weekend, cameras captured fires, vandalism and looting. Police arrested 27-year-old Samantha Shader, of Catskill, for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail into a police van with officers inside. She was charged with attempted murder.”
