NYC anti-migrant rally turns violent at clash with counter-protesters outside Gracie Mansion
Protesters on both sides of the migrant dispute clashed outside Gracie Mansion on Sunday, as dozens of cops tried to keep the raucous crowd under control during the unprecedented crisis engulfing the Big Apple.
Some of the more than 100 demonstrators screamed and threw punches at each other at the Upper East Side rally as most bashed City Hall’s handling of the crisis while others shouted them down.
“No migrants on Long Island!” a Donald Trump supporter shouted outside the Manhattan home of Mayor Eric Adams. “We pay a lot of property taxes!”
Shouted another, “Americans over migrants!”
Members of the anti-asylum seeker crowd held signs warning of “unvetted migrants” and cautioned that “our safety is in serious jeopardy.”
Nearly two dozen counter-protesters returned the verbal volley, yelling out, “F–k white supremacist NYPD!” as about 50 cops looked on.
The tense standoff came as about 100,000 migrants from the US southern border have flooded the five boroughs, forcing Adams to come up with at least 200 emergency shelters to house them.
The facilities, including a massive, 3,000-bed tent city on Randall’s Island, have irked locals who said they fear that the influx of migrants could be a powder keg.
Guardian Angels founder and former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa was among the throngs of angry New Yorkers outside Gracie Mansion on Sunday — and part of the small group busted by police.
He compared himself to the pacifist leader of India’s independence, Mahatma Gandhi — mocking the embattled Adams, who earlier this month said he himself is “Gandhi-like,” thinking and acting like the historical figure.
“The mayor said he’s Mayor Gandhi, right? He’s never done anything Gandhi-like,” said Sliwa, 69.
“I’m going to show him what Gandhi used to do,” Sliwa said of his plan to get arrested for “peaceful protest.”
“These migrants have jumped the queue,” Sliwa told the crowd. “And by the way, if I were a migrant and you gave me an opportunity to jump the queue and stay in a hotel, give me three square meals … — basically give me more than homeless people born in America have or veterans who are down on their luck have — you’re damn right they’re gonna keep coming.”
It was the third time in less than two weeks that Sliwa was handcuffed protesting migrant sites.
Last week, he was arrested while protesting outside the shuttered Island Shores Senior Residences in Midland Beach on Staten Island, where a migrant shelter was set up.
On Aug. 16, Sliwa also was taken into custody outside the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens.
“I’ve been arrested so many times,” he quipped Sunday. “Civil disobedience — this will be my 80th.”
The vocal group of Trump-supporting “patriots” made up the bulk of the 100-plus crowd, and faced off with the equally loud group of counter-protesters — with Sliwa part of a third and smaller group.
