Several protesters were arrested during a Gaza war protest in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on Saturday, May 18.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Two Brooklyn lawmakers took to social media to express concern after police were caught on camera roughly arresting demonstrators at a pro-Palestine march on Saturday.
Protesters flooded the streets through rain in Bay Ridge to participate in the Nakba Day All Out for Gaza on May 18. Bay Ridge is the city’s biggest Palestinian neighborhood, and the Nabka Day march has been an annual event in the community for years before war broke out in Gaza between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks.
More than over eight hundred protestors marched along Bay Ridge Avenue and 5th Avenue on Saturday afternoon. The march was led by Within Our Lifetime, an organization that has been advocating for “the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland” — a goal that others see as effectively a call for the destruction of the state of Israel.
The demonstrators — many of whom chanted “End The War in Gaza” as they walked through the streets — marched to the corner of 5th Avenue and 66th Street, and was mostly peaceful until about 2 hours into the march. Then, after some protesters lit flares, NYPD officers moved in to break up the proceedings.
In one video posted on X (formerly Twitter) by journalist Katie Smith, several senior NYPD officers were seen brutally punching demonstrators while pinning them to the pavement. Smith said the officers “rushed in and seemingly grabbed people out of the crowd at random.”
NOW: As pro-Palestine protesters reached an intersection, officers rushed in and grabbed people out of the crowd seemingly at random
Officers tackled multiple protesters to the ground and then proceeded to punch them pic.twitter.com/fyPfA8emyM
— katie smith (@probablyreadit) May 18, 2024
The NYPD is seen slamming this protestor to the ground…
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