Protesters spent their second night in a park right outside City Hall in Lower Manhattan.
In a throwback to 2011’s Occupy Wall Street movement, dozens of demonstrators have set up a campsite in the space, giving out water and PPE, making signs and soliciting donations of money and food.
They are demanding $1.3 billion in cuts from the NYPD, with the money going to education, housing and other social programs.
They moved into the site Tuesday night, and say they will stay until June 30 - the day the City Council and the mayor must finalize the budget for the next fiscal year - or for as long as they can hold out.
One organizer told NY1’s Shannan Ferry they are taking up a space that belongs to the people, and they will continue to disrupt until their demands are met.
“We’re saying the police don’t make us safe,” she said. “You can see that in the last couple of weeks, the way they are treating people who are protesting. They’ve proved that in the countless black and brown people they’ve murdered since George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. They’ve continued to murder and cause oppression in our community.”
Other protesters said they will stay until their voices are heard.
“We’re telling them that we’re here to stay,” one protester said. “The problem’s not gonna go away until they meet some of our demands to defund.”
Another said they’re hoping people will pitch in with the things they need to keep this going.
“It’s important to have bedding,” he said. “It’s important to have food. We need bodies, and everyone is gonna stand in solidarity.”
There was a brief moment of tension between protesters and the NYPD when some people started relocating their barricades. The NYPD went to go move them back into place, and things started to get tense and escalate from there.
It ended with a few of the protesters talking to some of the members of the NYPD, and they collectively backed away from each other peacefully.