11 people arrested, Daily News photographer hurt during protest, NYPD says
A crowd lighting fires, throwing ice and placing stickers on vehicles led to 11 arrests at a protest Friday night in Midtown Manhattan, including of a 19-year-old who bit a cop in the thigh and kicked another, according to the NYPD.
The gathering had grown disorderly, and arrests made, around 9:15 p.m. near Sixth Avenue and W. 54th Street after the crowd refused orders to disperse, according to Det. Annette Shelton, an NYPD spokeswoman. Of the 11 people arrested, she said, 10 were issued desk appearance tickets on charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration, unlawful assembly and assault.
Two parked police vehicles were vandalized with anti-police messages, Shelton said.
And according to a tweet by the account @protest_nyc, the crowd earlier included about 100 marchers, and two flags were burned near the NYPD's Times Square annex: an American flag and a Blue Lives Matter flag.
Charges against the 19-year-old, a man named Angel Rivera of Midtown, include assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and unlawfully possessing noxious material.
Rivera allegedly attacked the cops while being arrested. The cops, as well as a captain who was struck with a bottle thrown during the unrest, were not seriously injured, Shelton said.
A 72-year-old press photographer, identified by the New York Daily News as the paper’s Sam Costanza, was assaulted by the crowd as he took photographs near 55th Street and Sixth Avenue. Costanza was struck in the head from behind and kicked once on the ground. There haven’t been any arrests in that case, Shelton said.
The News said Costanza believes he broke his nose.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
