NEW YORK – The curfew set for 8 p.m. in New York on Tuesday was largely ignored as thousands took to the streets to protest.
The city changed the curfew time from 11 p.m. Monday and banned traffic in much of Manhattan after dark.
After another night of chaos, Mayor Bill de Blasio changed curfew times across town, but rejected calls from President Donald Trump and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s offer to bring in the National Guard in his city.
“Everyone, it’s time to go home so that we can keep people safe,” the city’s mayor told WINS-AM radio shortly after the curfew went into effect.
But many protesters continued to march through the city. In some areas, the police let people move on, while making arrests in others.
“I’m surprised,” said Risha Munoz, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where at times protesters were greeted with cheers by onlookers in the windows of buildings. “I didn’t think they were going to let us continue, but we just have to keep moving and we don’t stop.”
In some neighborhoods, officers started ordering people to move around and arrested protesters.
“We are going to have a few difficult days,” the mayor of Blasio, a Democrat, said earlier, announcing that the curfew would remain until Sunday.
The day before, many shop windows in downtown Manhattan were smashed. A police officer was hospitalized after being hit by a car in the Bronx, where protesters walked between broken-in buildings and a burnt-out car on Tuesday, a commercial thoroughfare.
“This is our community,” said Nelson Bauza, inspecting the damage to his pawn shop. “I have a good relationship with the people in this community, for that to happen, it just doesn’t make sense.”
The violence of the protests threatens to eclipse anger over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis policeman hit a knee in his neck and held him down for more eight minutes.
“Something has to break, and it won’t be us,” said Evan Kutcher, one of hundreds of people who stood outside the Barclays Center chanting George Floyd’s name Tuesday night.
“We are here because something has to change. We hear Cuomo and de Blasio every day saying that what is happening is unacceptable, but without a plan of action on their part.
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