NYPD Officers Attacked, Injured In Brooklyn Bridge Protest: Cops

NEW YORK CITY — At least four NYPD officers suffered injuries and 37 people were arrested during a clash with Black Lives Matter protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge — an incident the department quickly decried on its official Twitter account.

It posted photos of bloodied officers and a video showing an apparent protester whack at least one cop on the head.

"This is not peaceful protest, this will not be tolerated," wrote @NYPDnews on Wednesday.

The incident and subsequent official NYPD denunciation unfolded as other violent videos involving police circulated Wednesday.

And these were different.

A New York Times report — "N.Y.P.D. Says It Used Restraint During Protests. Here’s What the Videos Show." — detailed more than 60 videos from George Floyd protests showing NYPD officers attacking protesters.

It put the videos into broad categories: "Officers attacked people who had their hands up." "The police responded to words with punches and pepper spray." "And they repeatedly pummeled people who were already on the ground."

Another video that circulated widely Wednesday wasn't protest-related, but showed another violent police attack. Body cam footage showed an officer pummel a man on the subway. Charges followed the attack, but not for the officer — prosecutors charged the man with assault after he brushed the officer's hand away.

Those videos, plus weeks of continuous protests over the killing of George Floyd and police brutality, were the backdrop to the Brooklyn Bridge protest.

A Gothamist reporter at the scene tweeted that a pro-police "Blue Lives Matter" demonstrators crossed paths with Black Lives Matter protesters, who linked arms to prevent their passage across the bridge.

The Blue Lives Matter group marched with a black-led prayer group, Gothamist later reported. Many in the prayer march felt their event was "hijacked" by police, the report states.

NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, the department's top uniformed officer, and other injured officers were marching with the pro-police group.

At some point, there was a clash as police tried to clear a path. That's apparently when NYPD officers were attacked.

Surveillance video posted on social media by the police department showed a man on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway rushing toward a group of officers and reaching over a fence to bash their heads with a cane.

Police photos of the aftermath showed a lieutenant with a bloodied face, a detective holding a bandage to his head, and a bicycle officer helping a fellow officer dress a head wound.

Monahan, who previously took a knee with George Floyd protesters, suffered injuries to his hand.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, hours after the skirmish, painted a "Black Lives Matter" mural in the Bronx and signed a package of police accountability bills into law.