New York, Feb 13 (EFE) .- A demonstration of the social movement Black Lives Matter in downtown Manhattan turned violent on Friday night, resulting in at least 11 arrests and two injured police officers.
The New York Police Department reported that two of its agents were injured, without giving further details, in a concentration of about 100 people that traveled the streets of the financial area of Manhattan known as Midtown.
Some of the attendees were arrested after attacking the photographer for the local New York Daily News Sam Costanza, mistaking him for a policeman.
According to local media, the photojournalist was surrounded by several of the protesters and beaten after one of them recognized him from another Black Lives Matter protest that took place outside a police station in the Greenwich Village area last year.
Thinking that it was an undercover police officer, around a dozen people began to shove, punch and hit the photographer with objects, who later said they believed he had a broken nose.
Although the protest was initially peaceful, a video seen on social media shows several of them burning a flag in front of the New York Police post in Times Square.
Later, a protester was arrested on Sixth Avenue, causing outrage and led to an altercation between citizens and law enforcement that resulted in 10 more arrests.
The demonstration, which demanded the withdrawal of funds from the New York Police, also resulted in damage to at least two vehicles.
New York law enforcement has been widely criticized for its excessive violence, and last January New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the New York Police Department (NYPD) for its “excessive” response to the protests that took place against police brutality in May and June 2020. EFE
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