NYPD Fails To Break Up Massive Crown Heights Street Party: Report

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Cops were unable to break up a massive crowd of Orthodox Jewish Brooklynites who took to the streets for a holiday celebration Monday evening, just hours after city officials warned of coronavirus surges in the neighborhood.

The celebration, reported on by Gothamist, broke out at the Kingston Avenue and Montgomery Street intersection as part of a nightly celebration marking the weeklong Sukkot holiday.

Hundreds of revelers, many of them unmasked, continued dancing, jumping and celebrating as police officers struggled to move the crowd out of the street, video shows.

"Please get onto the sidewalk," an officer says through a megaphone. "You will be allowed to dance on the sidewalk."

The police left soon after the video and the event was allowed to continue, sources told Gothamist. The NYPD confirmed that no arrests were made, according to the outlet.

The encounter came just hours after city and state officials urged New Yorkers in COVID-19 hotspots to practice social distancing and follow a state mask mandate as they consider putting certain Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods on lockdown.

Crown Heights' 11213 ZIP code — which the location of the street celebration borders — is among 13 ZIP codes that Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed get a partial shutdown of "high-risk activities."

The 13 ZIP codes are among a "watchlist" of areas whose infections are growing but have not yet reached the 3 percent threshold of coronavirus clusters where schools were closed Tuesday.

People were quick to point out the contrast between the Crown Heights altercation and previous encounters between police and Black Lives Matter protesters who've blocked streets in recent weeks.

"No one get arrested, no one got hurt. There was no tear gas, no pepper spray, no billy clubs," Orthodox Crown Heights resident Ephraim Sherman told Gothamist "Those are good things. I’m glad my neighborhood didn’t have violent arrests. That would've happen if they didn’t look like me."

Asked about another large gathering in Borough Park — which is experiencing one of the worst coronavirus surges in New York City — de Blasio promised Tuesday he'd address such "harmful" gatherings.

"Obviously, something like that cannot happen, particularly in the middle of a crisis where certain ZIP codes are showing of a particularly high level of this disease, and it's a danger to everyone," he said. "People have to be smart to not let something like that happen, and there will obviously be consequences."

Read the full Gothamist report here.