New York police are investigating a video that appears to show a patrol vehicle plowing through a crowd during Saturday’s protest.
The 27-second video, which was posted to Twitter, shows an NYPD truck in front of a crowd throwing objects at the vehicle. There is a barricade in front of the truck.
The truck then appears to drive into the barricade, knocking over protesters. Screaming and yelling are then heard while a person is seen jumping on top of the truck. It’s unclear if there were any injuries.
This incident further fuels the flames of negative interactions between police and the people they’re sworn to protect.
A lot of the protests erupting in major cities across the US are the result of people’s anger boiling over after the death of unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the incident is under investigation, but emphasised that the officers may have had no other choice.
“I’m not going to blame officers who were trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation. The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with, and they created an untenable situation,” he said.
“I wish the officers had found a different approach, but let’s begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround that police car, period.”
The mayor also emphasised late on Saturday that he had spoken with community leaders and there is a possibility that there are protesters who are intentionally trying to incite violence including those who have come to New York City from other places.
“People who represent the communities of our city and the residents of our city are not joining negative and violent protests,” de Blasio said.
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