The Adams administration is defending the NYPD after violent arrests were made during a pro-Palestinian rally in Brooklyn Saturday.
“We all have a right to protest. You don't have a right to ride on the top of a bus. You don't have a right to spit at police officers. You don't have a right to disobey lawful orders,” Mayor Eric Adams said in an interview with "Mornings On 1." “That was a complete disruption of the Bay Ridge community.”
For years, the pro-Palestinian organization, Within Our Lifetime, has led a rally in Bay Ridge to commemorate Nakba Day, which focuses on the day when thousands of Palestinians were displaced following the start of the Arab-Israeli war in 1948.
While the demonstration in past years has been peaceful, organizers said there was a difference in how the police reacted this year.
Instead of just the local precinct monitoring the rally, the NYPD also brought in the Strategic Response Group and senior officials, some of whom were seen punching protesters while making arrests.
According to officials, more than 40 demonstrators were arrested.
Abdullah Akl, an organizer for Within Our Lifetime, and Nerdeen Kiswani, the co-founder of the organization, joined NY1 political anchor Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” Monday to discuss the protests.
"Even this [rally] is historic to this moment because Bay Ridge is known to be a very safe, family-centered community," Akl said. “So people just seeing this level of preemptive NYPD presence showed the community the NYPD wasn't here for a peaceful protest. If anything, the NYPD was here to arrest, [the] NYPD was here to brutalize, and nothing short of that."