Picking up the pieces after a week of fury
Marching through Union Square on May 30, 2020.
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
AND MARK HALLUM
A crime halfway across the
country — the policeinvolved
killing of Minneapolis
resident George Floyd
— set off a fi restorm of protests
and chaos across the United
States, and our community found
itself at the center of the unrest in
New York.
The first protests over
Floyd’s death occurred on the
afternoons of May 28 and 29 at
Union Square and Foley Square,
respectively. With scores of rowdy
protesters arrested at both events,
they offered just a preview of the
turbulent week that followed.
Marches continued on May 30
across Manhattan. Those seeking
justice for Floyd’s death began the
day in Harlem and headed southward
through the island to Union
Square during the afternoon. By
all accounts, the marches were
largely peaceful up to that point,
with a few isolated arrests made
here and there.
But after nightfall on May
30, all hell broke loose in Union
Square, East Village, SoHo and
Chelsea.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Vandals and looters used
the protests as cover to go on
the attack that night, and over
the course of the following two
evenings. They burned out NYPD
vehicles, scrawled graffi ti on public
places, smashed through store
windows and rifl ed through businesses
looking to get their hands
on whatever they could.
It was more of the same the
following night, May 31. A
group starting in Bryant Park
migrated to Foley Square before
taking a walk to Barclays Center.
Organizers leading the show
stressed “peaceful protest” as
their chants reinforced.
But another group migrated
over the Manhattan Bridge into
SoHo with very different intentions.
There, Lulumon, Aldo,
CitiBank and other storefronts
had their windows bashed in
and merchandise was taken from
display cases in the front. Shoes
were scattered about. A white
female protester kicked off some
chaos at Lulumon by throwing an
object through the glass, others
joined in by pulling mannequins
through the gap.
Police officers kneel in solidarity with Black Lives Matter
protesters in Times Square on May 31, 2020
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
Monday night, Mayor Bill de
Blasio implemented an 11 p.m.
curfew for New York, hoping to
stop the overnight chaos. Yet the
overnight between June 1-2 saw
the height of looting, as people
ransacked stores across SoHo
and the Village in a shameful freefor
all. They exploited a peaceful
effort toward societal change for
their own personal gain.
Along the way, the NYPD had
their hands full trying to make
order out of chaos. Many of them
faced down protesters and looters
and were injured by fl ying debris
and assaults.
But the department also came
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
under fi re for some of the tactics
used, from pepper spray deployment
to the use of brute force. Mayor de
Blasio threatened to take the badge
from an offi cer who pulled a gun
on a protester in Manhattan in an
episode caught on camera.
The curfew was moved up to
8 p.m. Tuesday night, and that
brought some additional peace
to the city. There were plenty of
arrests of protesters who broke
the curfew, but the looting and
vandalism was greatly reduced.
Even a standoff between protesters
and police at the foot of the
Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown
came to a peaceful end.
As we went to press Wednesday,
there’s optimism that the
crisis might fi nally be waning, and
it couldn’t come at a better time.
New York City is set to reopen
Monday, June 8, after being virtually
shut down for three months
due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet small businesses and
communities across Manhattan,
already seriously impacted by the
pandemic, now must pick up the
pieces from a terrible week in the
city’s history — and hope that the
restart leads to better days ahead.
PHOTO BY REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID
A member of the New York City Police Department (NYPD)
stands outside a CVS store after it had be vandalized amid
nationwide unrest following the death in Minneapolis police
custody of George Floyd, in the midtown section of Manhattan,
New York City, U.S., June 1, 2020.
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
An officer stands guard as an NYPD van burns
near the intersection of East 13th Street and
Broadway in the East Village on May 30, 2020.
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
A resident informs police about looters at the Warehouse
Wines and Liquor store on Broadway in SoHo
on May 31, 2020.
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
Protestors, with many looters among them, are finally
stopped and surround by NPYD in riot gear at
Broadway and 12th Street, south of Union Square.
Schneps Media June 4, 2020 3