Protests in N.Y.C.: Latest Updates |
Weather: Sunny early, partly cloudy later. High around 70. |
Alternate-side parking: Suspended through Sunday. |
 | | Chang W. Lee/The New York Times |
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Violent confrontations erupted across N.Y.C. |
Parts of New York City descended into chaos for a fourth night on Sunday as largely peaceful demonstrations over the death of George Floyd turned into scenes of flaming debris, human stampedes and looted storefronts. |
As the night wore on, violent confrontations erupted throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. Protesters threw glass bottles and trash at the police, while large groups of officers charged down streets, pushing crowds of demonstrators aside and using batons as they made arrests. |
The protests in New York were part of escalating demonstrations in dozens of cities across the country that were prompted by a video capturing the arrest and death of Mr. Floyd, who was black, as a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. |
Some cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, imposed curfews as the protests escalated, but officials in New York said that they would not order people off the streets. |
The demonstrations in New York City drew as many as 6,000 people, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, far exceeding the limit on mass gatherings that took effect in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Still, Mr. de Blasio said, the city remained on track to begin reopening on June 8. |
The mayor’s response to the protests was mixed. |
Mr. de Blasio called for investigations into several incidents captured on video that appeared to show police officers attacking protesters. But he criticized some demonstrators who he said were causing violence and property damage. |
On Saturday, one of the protests’ tensest moments — captured in a video that quickly went viral — unfolded on Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where police officers in an S.U.V. were blocked by a throng of protesters carrying a yellow metal barricade. As other demonstrators pelted the vehicle and a second police S.U.V. with objects from the street, the cars suddenly surged forward into the crowd. |
“I did not want to ever see something like that,” the mayor told reporters. “But I also want to emphasize that situation was created by a group of protesters blocking and surrounding a police vehicle, a tactic that we had seen before in the last few days, a tactic that can be very, very dangerous to everyone involved.” |
Officers took a knee to show solidarity with protesters. |
On Sunday in Times Square, protesters chanted for police officers to kneel with them. Under the red light of a Walgreens store, a female black officer dropped her knee to the ground. She stood back up and fist-bumped one of the protesters. |
A protester made a heart sign with her hands. Another police officer then went down on one knee. |
“I know you’re one of us,” a protester told him. |
Earlier in the day, several hundred people gathered in Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, where protesters chanted the names of black men killed by the police. Moments of silence were observed for each one. |
One of the state’s top Democratic lawmakers said he would no longer accept campaign contributions from law enforcement unions or organizations. [New York Post] |
CitiBike plans to add thousands of pedal-assist electric bikes to its fleet this summer. [Gothamist] |
A Queens man is back home after spending 53 days in the hospital battling the coronavirus. [Queens Chronicle] |
And finally: Heaven for skateboarders |
The Times’s Antonio de Luca writes: |
As the coronavirus has brought New York to a standstill, vehicle and pedestrian traffic in Manhattan has all but vanished. |
Unfettered access to normally crowded spaces was unimaginable just a few months ago, but now places like Times Square, SoHo and the financial district are virtually empty. |
For many skateboarders, this time of vacancy is also a moment of opportunity, even of liberation — what skating has always been about. We asked a dozen professionals and amateurs to tell us what it is like to skate in Manhattan now. |
Stephanie Tonnoir, 28, is Belgian and has been skating in New York since 2012. “In New York you will find angry people, you will find happy people,” she said. “But right now there are no people — it’s pretty good, it’s ideal.” |
Jonah Rollins, 24, grew up in Texas and was recently laid off from his job in the fashion industry. “There’s definitely a kind of like spooky energy,” he said. “I feel like that’s here. Like ghosts of New York past.” |
And Kyota Umeki, 17, who grew up in the East Village and is sponsored by Vans, said that, while skating, “security guards, or the cops, came up to us, and instead of kicking us out, they gave us masks.” |
He added, “I am going to miss this for sure when it’s done.” |
It’s Monday — keep grinding. |
Metropolitan Diary: The fruit seller |
There was a fruit seller at Broadway and 111th Street who knew me by sight. |
We had roots in neighboring countries, but we spoke the same language. Feelings of kinship would often overwhelm me when I passed his stand and prompt me to splurge. |
One day, I stopped and bought three mangoes, a box of strawberries and eight apples. He gave me two bananas free. That was the bond we shared. |
Another customer was appalled to witness such blatant favoritism. She decided to skip the blueberries she was considering and hastily threw the fruit seller a few coins for a bag of oranges. |
He shrugged and lit a beedi. |
I noticed water splashing out of a weathered bucket that was concealed by a plastic sheet attached to the stand. I bent over and saw a hilsa fish in the bucket struggling to swim. |
The hilsa is the king of fish in our part of the world. I stared at the dethroned king, exiled thousands of miles from home and gasping in a rusty pail. I soaked in its whiff. |
The fruit seller smoked his beedi and occasionally sang a few lines in a croaky voice. The music wasn’t melodious, but it created an atmosphere. |
Snow began to fall. The hilsa sank to the bottom of the bucket and lay still. |
The fruit seller didn’t talk. |
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