November 1 2020 – MANHATTAN, New York:
On the day of a scheduled Trump Caravan #MAGADrag, which did not arrive to the originally planned locations, a group of counter-protesters marched from Madison Square Park along 23rd street toward Chelsea Piers. Once the group arrived at 11th Avenue, a large presence of police in riot gear surrounded and followed the group down 24th street. The police began playing the announcement for the group to leave the roadway and the protesters appeared to be on the sidewalk when the police charged and made several arrests including at least 2 journalists and 8 others, including Hawk Newsome, co-founder of the Greater New York chapter of Black Lives Matter, who was seen approaching police with his hands up.
Scootercaster was nearly detained but eventually pushed back to the sidewalk.
The incident took place directly under the High Line park on 24th Street. The group eventually dispersed shortly after.
NYPD has since put out a statement saying: “It is being reported on social media that earlier today members of the press were arrested during a protest in Manhattan.
These reports are false. All arrested individuals from today’s protests have been verified to not be NYPD credentialed members of the press.”
We were unable to confirm wether the journalists were NYPD press credentialed, but one of the journalists has been seen covering news previously. According to the journalists on the scene – press who displayed NYPD credentials were not arrested.
Video by Oliya Scootercaster and @NewYorkCityPeople (FNTV freedomnews.tv) desk@scootercaster.com for licensing