HARASSMENT, SPITTING AND ASSAULT
Inside the ugly bedlam
at Bayside protests
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
When a pro-police rally and
a Black Lives Matter demonstration
faced off in Crocheron
Park in Bayside on Sunday,
July 12, several incidents of
harassment and one assault
took center stage. Only one individual,
who claims he wasn’t
responsible for any of those
incidents, was arrested as a result
of the bedlam.
The two separate demonstrations
in Bayside took place
on Sunday, with the Black Lives
Matter (BLM) demonstration
kicking off first around noon.
That demonstration began at
Crocheron Park and marched
to Bell Boulevard.
But Jessica, one of the organizers
with Bayside’s BLM
group who asked for her last
name not to be used, said that
they decided to head back to
the park after about five protesters
with Warriors in the
Garden — a collective of activists
dedicated to non-violent
protest — told her they were
encountering some pushback
from pro-police demonstrators
on Bell Boulevard.
The Warriors originally
decided to leave the BLM
march to Bell due to a “heavy
police escort,” which they said
they’ve had bad experiences
with in the past.
But back at the park, the two
sets of demonstrators started
to engage in discussions that
quickly escalated to verbal attacks.
While the BLM protesters
started reading out some
police facts and telling the propolice
demonstrators why they
should join them, with a fence
in between the two groups,
some individuals with the propolice
group on the other side
began yelling and spitting at
them.
This led the BLM protesters
to come around the fence to
tell police officers about what
some members of the pro-police
group were doing and see
if they could file complaints.
Things quickly escalated
from there.
As the two groups got closer,
verbal attacks turned physical.
Police tried to create a barrier
between the hundreds of
pro-police demonstrators and
the few dozen BLM demonstrators
.B
ut according to some BLM
demonstrators, someone from
the pro-police group managed
to avoid the barrier.
An unidentified white man
wearing a gray T-shirt with the
words “NYPD” and no mask
was seen slapping a woman
marching with Bayside’s Black
Lives Matter group.
Kristen McManus, a
37-year-old Bayside resident,
told QNS she is the woman who
was slapped.
She told QNS the man came
up from behind the Black Lives
Matter group and started harassing
and spitting at some
of the protesters. While they
were trying to protect other
Black and Brown members, he
reached out and hit her across
the face.
“After he did that, the
crowd took after him, and he
went running,” McManus
said. “I tried telling the cops,
but they didn’t stop him. I had
cops surrounding me, but nobody
asked if I needed medical
attention or if I wanted to file
a report. It was like being in a
riot, almost.”
She said this happened at
about 2:30 p.m.
“I only know because of my
Fitbit, I had about 148 heartbeats
per minute at that time,”
McManus said. “It didn’t go
down by much that whole
day.”
The unidentified man was
not arrested on the scene.
When McManus reported
the incident the following day
at the 111th Precinct, police
told her she should’ve called
911 as soon as it happened.
“If you were hit and there’s
a wall of police, and you’re
saying that the man is right
there and nobody turns to see
… That’s the problem. That’s
why we protest,” she said. “My
hair is neon pink; I’m standing
out in a crowd. You can see I’m
asking for help and they’re acting
like I’m invisible. If they’re
gonna do that to me, how can
we expect them to take care of
anyone else?”
Jessica said when some protesters
tried to get his motorcycle’s
license plate, the police
told them to stay back.
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.2 COM | JULY 17-JULY 23, 2020
Yacine Diallo, a protester with the Black Lives Matter movement, was the only person arrested at
Bayside protests on July 12. Photo by Dean Moses
When asked if any arrests
have been made in connection
to McManus’ assault and if the
man had been identified as of
Tuesday, an NYPD spokesperson
said there are no updates
as of yet.
McManus said that when
she filed a report the following
day, police told her it doesn’t
qualify as an assault because
she didn’t make the call at the
scene. But when McManus
asked a representative from
the Legal Aid Society, they told
her that is incorrect and it is
up to the district attorney’s office
to make that call.
It is still unclear, then,
how and why Yacine Diallo, a
21-year-old protester with Warriors
in the Garden, was arrested
a few minutes after Mc-
Manus’ incident at Crocheron
Park’s parking lot.
A video of the moment it
occurred shows several police
officers grabbing and beating
him while he was on the
ground before he was arrested,
followed by cheers from the
pro-police demonstrators.
Diallo, a Black man, told
QNS he didn’t even see it coming
.Diallo said he was at the
front of their group, making
sure there was a “good barrier”
between them, the police
and pro-police demonstrators,
when he heard a scream.
“When I went to see what
happened, I saw a police officer
come at me, then five came
at me, and I didn’t know what
happened,” Diallo said. “While
I was on the ground they kept
punching me.”
Diallo, a Bronx resident,
was arrested and taken to the
111th Precinct at about 2:36
p.m. He said police officers
did not tell him why he was
detained and refused to give
him medical attention when
he asked.
“They said, ‘You are detained
so you can’t ask,’” said
Diallo, who was never arrested
or in a police car before Sunday.
“A police officer told me
I was going there for my own
security. I’m like, ‘How are you
putting me in jail for my own
security?'”
He was released at about
7 p.m. Fellow Warriors in the
Garden members waited for
him and called a Legal Aid Society
representative to help.
According to an NYPD
spokesperson, Diallo was arrested
for “attempting to hit
an unidentified victim with a
closed fist.” The spokesperson
said he’s charged with inciting
a riot, attempted assault, and
disorderly conduct and harassment.
He was also given a desk
appearance ticket.
Diallo said he was only told
about one charge: inciting a
riot. “I have to go to court, so
I’m working with my lawyer,”
said Diallo, adding that he’s
been resting and figuring out
what to do now. “What they did
to me, they will do to another
person.”
Steve Behar, a lifelong resident
of Bayside who was marching
with the Black Lives Matter
protesters and was at the
scene of the arrest, claimed the
cops targeted Diallo. He also
said he told one of the officers
the unidentified white man on
a motorcycle was causing the
trouble, but they told him they
“didn’t see it happen.”
“His name was Officer Morales,
and his response was,
‘I didn’t see anything’ — as if
they need to see something to
investigate,” Behar said.
Behar and Jessica added
that a few moments after Diallo’s
arrest, a police officer pepper
sprayed two other Black
women with the Black Lives
Matter group. Video of that
moment is not available.
In the moments leading up
to the incidents in the park’s
parking lot, Behar described
a tense encounter between the
hundreds of Blue Lives Matter
and the few dozen Black Lives
Matter demonstrators.
“They started screaming
racial slurs, telling Asians and
Hispanics to ‘go back to their
country,'” Behar said.
Jessica, with Bayside’s BLM
group, said she witnessed some
questionable behavior from
the police officers working the
protests that day. One instance
was when she told their police
escort they were turning back
to the park, which she claimed
was met with frustration from
the officers in charge.
Read more on QNS.com.
BAYSIDE TIMES (USPS#025088) is published weekly by Queens CNG LLC, 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY.11361, (718) 229-0300. The entire contents of this publication are copyright 2020. All rights reserved. The newspaper will
not be liable for errors appearing in any advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Bayside Times C/O Queens CNG
LLC. 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361.
/QNS.com
