Angry protesters have swarmed the NYPD commissioner’s home on West 73rd street in Manhattan, in response to the arrest of a protester who was bundled into an unmarked van on Tuesday.
Furious that one of their own had been arrested in such a way, the protest march, which the ‘kidnapped’ woman was part of, made its way to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea’s home in the early hours of Wednesday morning, as eyewitness video from the scene purports to show.
"This is a raid, Commissioner Shea"#AbolitionPark protesters, citing the NYPD's 3:40 am razing of their City Hall encampment a week prior, give the police commissioner a 2:30 am wakeup call
— NYC Protest Updates 2020 (@protest_nyc) July 29, 2020
Sirens wailed and strobe lights flickered as the mob grew restless outside the top cop’s house. The clearly aggrieved group also began banging, jeering and whistling, creating as much noise as possible.
Video of the arrest went viral and generated outrage online, with commenters decrying the authoritarian tactics used against protesters. The NYPD claimed that the woman bundled into the van had been “wanted for damaging police cameras during five separate criminal incidents in and around City Hall Park.”
The NYPD added that its warrant squad regularly uses unmarked vehicles to locate wanted suspects and that uniformed bicycle police were also on-scene while carrying out the arrest.
Shea also ordered the tearing down of the Occupy City Hall encampment last week, further invoking the ire of anti-police brutality protesters.
The commissioner on Monday decried the uptick in violence, particularly shootings, in his city, warning residents that the spike in shootings would likely continue for the rest of the summer.
“It’s going to take some time to address the significant uptick in violence that we see,” Shea said, citing the 15 shootings “just on Sunday” as an example.
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