NYPD Commissioner: 24 'Spoiled Brats' Arrested in Latest Protest
Protesters who took to the streets Monday in a protest that turned into a wave of vandalism are nothing more than “knuckleheads” and “spoiled brats,” according to New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.
On Monday night, about 100 marchers demonstrated in the Fulton Street area of Lower Manhattan over the death of Jonathan Price, a black Texas man shot and killed by police, the New York Post reported.
Shea commented on the demonstration Tuesday morning during an interview on NY1.
He made clear his disgust that police had to be “chasing knuckleheads around last night, breaking windows, property damage, graffiti, lighting fires.
NYPD men & women remain committed to the safety & well-being of ALL New Yorkers, in ALL NYC neighborhoods.
We will get through this by working TOGETHER — #OneNewYork.
Thanks, @patkiernan, for having me on this morning ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/7iOwpY2AmC
— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) October 6, 2020
“I mean, that is the last thing that we as New Yorkers need right now,” he said.
“And that’s last night in New York City — 24 more arrests, you know, at a time when we have diminished resources, and we have a violent uptick with the courts and everything else going on,” Shea added.
“We don’t need officers pulled away for these, sometimes I don’t know what you call them. I’m not calling them peaceful protesters — maybe spoiled brats at this point,” he said.
New York City’s Independent Budget Office has said that the NYPD has spent $85.6 million in overtime in the first three months of current fiscal year. If that trend continues, the planned overtime budget will be exceeded by $116 million, according to the Gothamist.
The overtime budget for police was one casualty of Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to cut the NYPD budget by $1 billion.
According to the New York Daily News, the arrests Monday included individuals from upstate New York as well as Georgia, California, Texas and Ohio.
One arrested so far during Johnathan Price #Protests in NYC#JohnathanPrice pic.twitter.com/VmCuZtBbm2
— @SCOOTERCASTER (FNTV) (@ScooterCasterNY) October 6, 2020
Protest has since moved north towards Washington Square Park, where police have moved aggressively and made more arrests. NYPD is currently ordering protesters to leave the road clear on Broadway. https://t.co/Kme680SPUi
— NYC Protest Updates 2020 (@protest_nyc) October 6, 2020
As the marchers moved through Manhattan, they blocked traffic, scribbled graffiti on buildings, set fires to garbage and damaged storefronts, authorities said.
Graffiti included representations of the hammer-and-sickle symbol, anarchist signs, the phrase “Jonathan Price Was Here” and “BLM,” according to police.
By 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, three women ages 20, 19 and 16 were arrested for not dispersing as ordered. Another 19 people were later cited “for obstruction, unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct for refusing to disperse and other related offenses,” the Post reported, citing police.
One man was arrested for allegedly stealing a police radio and charged with petit larceny, the outlet reported. Collectively, 24 people were arrested or issued summons.
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