Police arrested 72 people — five for felony assaults on cops — during heated demonstrations in Lower Manhattan over the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minnesota, a top NYPD official said Friday morning.
The NYPD was out in force “to take the troublemakers out of the group” as dozens gathered Thursday at one of many nationwide demonstrations after Floyd, who was black, was killed by police while being arrested in Minneapolis on Monday, Chief of Department Terence Monahan said in a WPIX interview.
The demonstrators first gathered in Union Square before heading down to the steps of City Hall and then to the World Trade Center site.
One cop was hurt when a garbage can was hurled at him, Monahan said in a WPIX interview. Malik Taylor, 26, was busted in connection with that incident and charged with assault, cops said.
Matthew Pabon, 23, Adonis Hernandez, 21, Robert Graf, 33 and Daniel Lewicki, 27, were also charged with assaults on police officers, cops said.
A sergeant and a deputy inspector were thrown to the ground, the former suffering a concussion and the latter a shoulder and back injury, he said.
Another inspector was punched in the face, and someone tried to grab a gun from a captain, according to Monahan.
Others arrested during the protest include Allen Madey, 25 and Jaquan Marshall, 28, charged with reckless endangerment and Kelsie Tamblyn, 28, with resisting arrest, according to cops.
One juvenile was arrested on unspecified charges, according to police.
A total of 28 desk appearance tickets were issued for charges including obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and criminal tampering, cops said.
Police issued 35 summonses for charges including disorderly conduct and harassment.
“This group last night was bent on confronting the police and fighting with the police,” Monahan said. “Unlike the 99.9 percent of demonstrations … which are peaceful and people go out there and try to express their opinions — which we 100 percent support — last night’s group was bent on confronting, throwing bottles at the police, throwing garbage cans, throwing highway cones, garbage through the streets, taking over the highway.”
The NYPD’s handling of the protest drew criticism from Patrick Gaspard, a long-term confidante of Mayor Bill de Blasio and the president of Open Society Foundations. He retweeted a video of cops grabbing hold of one man, as throngs of his fellow protesters try to intervene.
“Look at this video,” Gaspard wrote. “Why are these cops all focused on this one protester? Why are police deployed in this way in a damn pandemic? How could leadership have not managed for and anticipated this tension after Minneapolis??”
Another video shows an officer using his bike to hold back protesters.
On Friday afternoon, a demonstration at Foley Square was largely peaceful.
A few dozen protesters, most without face masks, gathered, shouting, “No Justice no peace, no justice, no crooked police,” “F–k the police,” “Justice for Floyd” and “Don’t become a cop if you are scared.”
Alexis Perez, 17, from Brooklyn, carried a sign saying, “I can’t breathe.”
“This is what George Floyd said before the police brutally murdered him,” Perez said. “It’s not fair that only the African American people are suffering. We are all in this together. All lives matter. Some of my family members are black and I can’t imagine my family ever being murdered.”
During the deadly incident in Minneapolis on Monday, now-fired Officer Derek Chauvin, 44, who is white, is shown on video ignoring pleas from Floyd, 46, who was black, to let him breathe while he is handcuffed on the ground.
Floyd became unresponsive and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
“This is an incident that happens in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a cop who’s basically caused 800,000 law enforcement officers across the country to have to pay the price for his actions,” Monahan said.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore