NYPD Traps Peaceful George Floyd Protesters On Manhattan Bridge

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Thousands of peaceful demonstrators from Brooklyn late Tuesday marched across the Manhattan Bridge in protest over the killing of George Floyd and defiance of a much-criticized curfew.

But their hopes of continuing the protest in Manhattan hit a wall of hundreds of NYPD officers blocking entrance onto the island, creating a tense standoff and effectively trapping the protesters on the bridge with police at their backs in Brooklyn, according to real-time social media posts and reports.

Many chanted "peaceful protest" and "hands up, don't shoot" as the situation dragged on and fears they would be arrested grew, as seen in posts.

City Councilman Brad Lander, who represents Park Slope, criticized the NYPD's tactics.

"Unacceptable to trap them for this long," he wrote on Twitter. "Designed to make angry people even angrier."

It wasn't the only criticism.

"I am still stunned," tweeted Jake Bittle, a freelance reporter. "The largest police force in the country trapped thousands of people on a bridge hundreds of feet above water for what was essentially a glorified stunt."

Many of the demonstrators had started with a self-described "peaceful and prayerful" march that started earlier in Park Slope. They continued after an 8 p.m. curfew that did little to quell peaceful marches but may have tamped down scattered looting a bit.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday defended the NYPD's decision to block the protesters' entry into Manhattan.

"People really should just plain be home, but there was an exceptional effort to respect peaceful protest, understanding this moment in history," he said. "But the notion that folks were going to cross the bridge and just keep going and going into Manhattan, including into places where there had previously been physical damage, that was just not tolerable."

De Blasio praised protesters and police for having a "dialogue" on the bridge that defused any tensions.