"President Trump's heavily armed and masked immigration troops are turning American cities into battlegrounds - and when they did so in Lower Manhattan, on Tuesday, protesters rushed to the streets, where some were beaten, cuffed and arrested by the federal agents. But where was the NYPD, whose mission is to protect protesters' right to free speech and, equally important, their safety? Answer: nowhere to be found."
""We don't need ICE to do quality-of-life crimes. We don't need them to worry about illegal vendors," Cuomo said. "I would have called the President, and I would have said, 'Look, you're way out of bounds, they're way out of bounds, call them back or I'm going to have the NYPD step in and stop them because this is not their jurisdiction.""
Heavily armed, masked federal immigration officers confronted protesters in Lower Manhattan, beating, cuffing, and arresting some. The NYPD did not intervene, leaving protesters unprotected. The absence of local police appears intentional and could become a constitutional problem if more federal troops are deployed in New York City. The First Amendment protects the right to assemble and protest, and local police have historically overseen public demonstrations. Retired NYPD Detective Michael Alcazar said police must ensure peaceful protest while preventing crimes. Former governor Andrew Cuomo said his NYPD would have intervened and ordered federal agents back, arguing their actions exceeded jurisdictional boundaries.
Read at Streetsblog
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