BY BEN VERDE
Police aggressively arrested
a group of protesters during an
anti-eviction protest in Downtown
Brooklyn on Friday — including
an 80-year-old tenant
activist, who cops cuffed and
tossed into a windowless van as
she was attempting to comply
with orders to vacate the scene.
Offi cers from the Strategic
Response Group collared the
activists shortly before 1 pm after
they entered a Court Street
offi ce building that houses a
law fi rm responsible for representing
landlords in eviction
cases, despite activists complying
when they were ordered to
leave the building.
“They were defi nitely targeting
housing activists,” said
protester Mariano Muñoz, who
managed to evade arrest. “It
was really like Gestapo s—-.”
In all, cops arrested 19 protesters
during the demonstration,
according to police.
Muñoz says police gave no
warning before moving to arrest
protesters, who were complying
with their orders to
leave the third fl oor of the offi ce
building.
“They didn’t give us any
warning before the arrests,” he
said.
Octogenarian tenant activist
Joyce Webster was among
those arrested in the offi ce
building, according to protesters,
who say elder woman was
COURIER L 12 IFE, DEC. 18–24, 2020 PS
Video from the scene shows police shoving protesters off the sidewalk. Michael Hollingsworth
given little notice by police before
her otherwise-peaceful
protest ended in her arrest.
“All she wanted to do was
leave, and they arrested her,”
said Muñoz.
As the arrested protesters
were escorted onto the street
with zip-ties around their
wrists, a small group of activists
waiting outside began
chanting at offi cers to let them
go, and were met with shoves
and batons, and more arrests.
“When we started chanting
to let them go, they rushed
the whole group of people that
were there,” Eseteban Gíron,
an organizer with the Crown
Heights Tenant Union, told
Brooklyn Paper while waiting
outside the 84th Precinct
for protesters to be released.
“They just tackled a bunch of
people.”
Gíron said the group of
about 30 protesters was completely
overwhelmed by over
100 police.
“The numbers were what
seemed so excessive,” he said.
“There were two helicopters, at
least 10 paddy wagons.”
TENSIONS
FLARE
Cops arrest protesters
during anti-eviction march
Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc
Commissioner