NYPD Commissioner Shea: 24 ‘spoiled brats’ busted during Jonathan Price protest
Two dozen “knuckleheads” and “spoiled brats” were busted wreaking havoc in Lower Manhattan overnight protests against police brutality, according to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea.
The group of about 100 demonstrators stepped off around 9:30 p.m. Monday from Fulton Street near the South Street Seaport, with police sources saying they were protesting the fatal police shooting of Texas man Jonathan Price.
They then headed to Chambers and Centre streets, where two of them were busted for preventing the NYPD’s Technical Assistance Response Unit from filming their fellow protesters who were blocking the street, the sources said.
They were each charged with obstruction of governmental administration, according to the sources.
After an hour, some members of the group called it a night and headed into a nearby train station, but others continued marching north, ending up at West Broadway and Houston Street, the sources said.
The group blocked the street, scrawled graffiti, set garbage fires and broke the glass of a Bank of America on Canal Street as well as Lazaro SoHo, a men’s clothing boutique on West Broadway, according to the sources.
Twenty-two people were arrested a little after 2:30 a.m., sources said. It was unclear what they were charged with.
In a NY1 interview Tuesday morning, Shea said that officers were “out there in tough circumstances” Monday night, “chasing knuckleheads around.”
“Breaking windows, property damage, graffiti, lighting fires,” the top cop said. “I mean, that is the last thing that we as New Yorkers need right now. 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.”
“We don’t need officers pulled away for these, sometimes I don’t know what you call them — peaceful protesters — maybe spoiled brats at this point,” he said.
Jonathan Price, described as a “pillar of the community,” was trying to break up a domestic feud between a man and a woman at a Wolfe City, Texas gas station Saturday when he was gunned down by police.
Wolfe City police officer Shaun David Lucas was arrested and charged with murder Monday night in connection to the shooting.
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