NYC implementing 8 PM curfew for remainder of week
NYC implemented an 11 PM curfew on Monday night (6/1) in response to days of protests against the murder of George Floyd by police, police brutality, and systemic racism. The New York Times reports that some of last night's protests did in fact end at 11, while others went later, and that tonight (6/2) there will be an 8 PM curfew. UPDATE: In a press conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the 8 PM curfew will last all week. Via the Times:
The imposition of a citywide curfew, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Monday afternoon, was a significantly more forceful approach to civil unrest than the city had taken in its recent history.
[...] As 11 p.m. approached, thousands of New Yorkers were left with a decision to make: Stay or go home?
In some places, the protests continued even after the curfew went into effect; in others, New Yorkers gradually began to disperse as the deadline neared.
Just after the curfew took effect, more than 200 people remained on Atlantic Avenue near the Barclays Center chanting “hands up, don’t shoot” and marching west. By around midnight, they had crossed the Manhattan Bridge, passing dozens of officers on the way.
With the curfew 10 minutes away in Williamsburg, all but a handful of the protesters gathered outside the 90th Precinct had scattered. Some of those who remained said they had no intention of going home.
“I do not think anybody is going to be observing this curfew,” said George Daratany, 34. “It doesn’t compute for New York City to have a closing time.”
On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement, "I support and protect peaceful protest in this city. The demonstrations we've seen have been generally peaceful. We can't let violence undermine the message of this moment. It is too important and the message must be heard."
"The Police Commissioner and I have spoken at length about the incidents we've all seen in recent days where officers didn't uphold the values of this city or the NYPD," he continued. "We agree on the need for swift action. He will speak later today on how officers will be held accountable."
Those incidents include two police SUVs driving into a crowd of protestors, which was captured on video.
Monday and Tuesday mark the first times the city has been placed under a curfew in 75 years, since 1943, when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia enacted one in response to protests in Harlem following the shooting of a Black soldier by a white police officer.
Meanwhile, the results of an independent autopsy on George Floyd came out yesterday, revealing his cause of death as "homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.” The controversal previous autopsy, performed by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, "did not address in detail the effect of the purposeful use of force on Mr. Floyd's neck and the extent of Mr. Floyd's suffering at the hands of the police," Ben Crump, the family's attorney, said.
We've collected a list of resources to help protestors in the fight against police brutality and racism.