Getty Protesters walk on the Manhattan Bridge during a protest in honor of George Floyd.
Protesters who were marching from Brooklyn to Manhattan on Tuesday evening were met with a surprise once they reached the Manhattan Bridge.
During their march, almost 1,000 protesters arrived at the Manhattan Bridge after New York City’s 8 p.m. curfew, so they were met by New York Police Department officers. The officers barricaded the protesters on the bridge and did not let them exit onto Manhattan, PIX11 reports. Even though protesters who were tweeting claimed that protesters who tried to exit on the other side of the bridge into Brooklyn were also blocked by police officers, the mayor’s office said that isn’t true.
The Mayor’s Office Denies That the Brooklyn End of the Bridge Was Blocked
Communications Director Wiley Norvell of the mayor’s office tweeted that only the Manhattan side of the bridge was blocked.
“Clarification on what unfolded here. Police presence on both sides of the bridge, but only the Manhattan side was ever blocked off,” Norvell tweeted. “After attempting to cross into Manhattan but halted by police on that side, the group ultimately dispersed back over to Brooklyn where they are now.”
The protesters had a one-hour standoff with officers, according to WCBS 880.
LET US THROUGH #manhattanbridge
Protesters exited off the bridge on the Brooklyn side around 11 p.m.
Protesters Are Marching Against Police Brutality After the Death of George Floyd
Protesters began to hit the streets and march after the video of the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd went viral last week. In the clip, ex-officer Derek Chauvin is seen kneeling into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd is saying he can’t breathe. Chauvin was later fired from the Minneapolis Police Department and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
After Floyd’s death, protests started happening in cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York. Besides the protests, there have also been rioting and looting.
Businesses were burned and looted in Minneapolis. Nashville’s historic courthouse was set on fire. Two federal officers were shot in Oakland and another police officer was shot in Las Vegas. High-end stores were looted in Portland, Santa Monica and Los Angeles. And police and civilian vehicles were seen driving dangerously into crowds of protesters in New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. That’s just a small summary of the many incidents happening and often caught on video nationwide over the past week and a half.
Dramatic photos captured members of the National Guard standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 2 after police hit protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets on Monday in the city. Federal prisons are on lockdown for the second time in U.S. history amid the protests.
The same night as the Manhattan Bridge incident, June 2, New York police say they shot and killed an armed man suspected of shooting another man in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in an incident unrelated to the protests. That shooting was also caught on video by citizens.
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