NYPD officers in riot gear took the unusual step of clearing out Washington Square Park early Saturday morning, charging at park-goers with batons and arresting two people, claiming that the crowd was violating noise regulations and a curfew that is not typically enforced with such force.
The unexpected enforcement came hours after a post-election celebration and Black Lives Matter march had dispersed from the area without incident. At midnight, as many New Yorkers were still taking advantage of the warm weather, more than 50 officers in riot helmets lined up under the arch. A message from an NYPD loudspeaker announcing the park's midnight closure was widely disregarded.
Minutes after the announcement, officers gripping batons stormed into the public square and began shoving people toward the exits. A man who had been playing "Fuck Tha Police" from a boombox was thrown to the ground, swarmed by multiple cops and placed in handcuffs. "I didn't do anything!" he shouted, as an officer walked off with his speaker.
"It was like storm troopers coming in. Batons were up and ready. I’ve never seen anything like that," said Megan Lynch, a 34-year-old West Village resident. "We were hugging against the fountain and not moving because it felt like it was too scary to be even in the stampede that they were creating."
An NYPD spokesperson said that a 25-year-old was arrested and charged with obstructing governmental administration, violating sound reproduction rules, and violating park regulations. A 23-year-old was also charged with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, and violating park regulations.
The spokesperson did not respond to Gothamist inquiries about why officers in riot gear were ordered to clear the park after the protest had dissipated.
A young skateboarder completed a trick in front of a row of cops, moments before they charged the park
Washington Square Park closes at 12 a.m., according to NYC Parks Department rules. But late-night regulars said the curfew is rarely enforced — and never, they noted, by officers in riot gear brandishing police batons.
"Usually they bring a car through and they’re like, 'Okay, really time to go now,' and then people slowly trickle out," said Aaron Kheifets, an actor who lives in Chelsea. "This was aggressive. They rushed everybody."
After forcing dozens of protesters toward the east exit of the park, police accused the group of blocking the sidewalk. As the opposing sides shouted at each other, an officer swung a baton at a young woman who approached the police barricade.
"They missed her by inches because her friends got her out of the way," said Kheifets. "Like, you just swung your club at essentially a little girl, a defenseless 19-year-old."
The curfew blitz followed two straight nights of Manhattan protests that were met by hundreds of cops, who shoved, kettled and arrested the left-wing demonstrators, often without provocation. NYPD leaders said they acted to stop violent "agitators," noting they had recovered weapons from some protesters, and pointing to small trash fires that were set in the West Village on Wednesday night.
In his weekly Ask The Mayor segment on Friday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked why it was necessary to send "hundreds and hundreds of police officers in full military gear" to small non-violent demonstrations.
"If people are feeling there's a kind of militarism going on, that's not acceptable," de Blasio said. "The goal is to constantly reduce the presence and have it be more consistent with the values of neighborhood policing that we've been implementing and that have really changed the relationship in neighborhoods all over the city."
A de Blasio spokesperson did not respond to our question about whether the mayor thinks the NYPD's aggressive clearing of Washington Square Park counts as unacceptable militarism.
At around 7 p.m. on Friday, hours before the midnight curfew, exuberant New Yorkers gathered by the park's fountain to celebrate President Donald Trump's likely loss to former Vice President Joe Biden. Led by young Black Lives Matter organizers, much of the group later left the park to march through the East Village.
They were flanked by at least 300 NYPD officers, many on bikes and in full body armor, who looked on as young people twerked in the street and sparked cheers from outdoor diners.
Unlike the two previous nights, police made no arrests during the march. In a tweet on Saturday morning, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea praised the "group of NYPD officers" who escorted the "loud, passionate but orderly" march through the streets. But some demonstrators said the militarized police presence was yet more evidence that the department was clamping down on peaceful protest.
Cops guarding the protest on Friday night.
"They’re here to provoke instances where they can be violent. They’re here to intimidate," Reese Fluellen told Gothamist. The 34-year-old Hell’s Kitchen resident said that he was walking on the sidewalk when an unsteady bike cop rammed into his leg and knocked a mirror off a parked car. The officer then threatened him with arrest, he said. Fluellen attributed the behavior to the department's simmering anger at the Black Lives Matter movement after this summer's wave of protests.
"They’re angry about Trump losing, they're angry about all of this," he said. "They're like little kids who don’t get their way and want to take it out on everyone else."
As the group marched north on Avenue A, the cops on bikes took to the sidewalk, peddling past crowds of confused outdoor diners. A group of friend sitting outside the Kazuzah hookah lounge attempted to ask the passing convoy of cops what was happening — but were ignored.
“I think it’s good cops are there to keep people safe," said one member of the hookah group, who gave his name as Baron. "But come on, it’s a celebration.”
