5th Day Of Protests Begins In NYC Ahead Of Nighttime Curfew

NEW YORK, NY — Crowds protesting police brutality descended onto New York City for the fifth day Monday evening, hours before a new 11 p.m. curfew prompted by previous protests was set to be imposed.

Hundreds of protesters began gathering at 3 p.m. in Times Square, while marchers also started moving down Lexington and Madison avenues and through Union Square, according to social media posts.

Protests and vigils were also scheduled for later in the evening in Bed-Stuy, Williamsburg, Bay Ridge and Lower Manhattan, according to flyers online. A "DEFUND NYPD" banner was rolled out on the Queensboro Bridge earlier in the day.

Monday marked the fifth day that protests gripped Brooklyn, New York and the nation following the death of Minnesota man George Floyd after a police officer — who has since been charged with murder — knelt on his neck.

The evening protests started up as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that a curfew would be imposed on New York City on Monday night.

People will be ordered off the streets from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. It's unknown if the curfew will be in place for more than one night.

The governor and mayor also announced that the NYPD's police presence will be doubled in an effort to "prevent violence and property damage," with most extra officers being deployed in lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.

As of 5 p.m., the protests seemed to be continuing peacefully for the most part, though it appears the famous "Naked Cowboy" performer got into a scuffle with some protesters when he showed up wearing underwear supporting President Donald Trump.

Businesses in Times Square and Union Square also were seen boarding up their windows, likely to prevent looting and property damage that had occurred in some of the protests Sunday.

Sunday night saw more than 400 people arrested as looters ransacked shops throughout lower Manhattan, police said.

But the mayor also promised investigations into behavior by some police officers, including two NYPD cruisers that were driven into a crowd of protesters and a cop seen on video pulling a gun on a crowd outside The Strand bookstore in the East Village.