NEW YORK — They danced for Joe Biden, then they marched for police reform.

People celebrating in parts of Manhattan on Friday, anticipating a Biden victory in the presidential race, went on the move in the evening, protesting for racial justice and denouncing the NYPD’s aggressive arrests during protests the previous two nights.

First They Danced…

Biden was knocking on the door of victory Friday, taking narrow leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania over President Donald Trump. Biden’s lead in the two states, along with Nevada, have steadily expanded over the day — although it is still very slim in Georgia and the state will almost surely go to a recount — as absentee ballots are counted. Those ballots have been cast mostly by Biden voters, and many absentee ballots still to be counted in the three states are from Democratic counties, severely narrowing Trump’s path to the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the election.

Even though the race was not yet called, several celebrations broke out in the city in anticipation of the Democrat’s win.

 

In Washington Square Park earlier in the day, hundreds of people danced, sang, and cheered over the results, and called for every vote to be counted as Trump’s team attempted to stop the count of absentee ballots in states where they’ve mostly gone to Biden.

 

Crowds of revelers also boogied in the East Village, doing the Cha-Cha Slide on East 23rd Street to show their joy with Biden’s position. That crowd originally started its night at Tompkins Square Park to protest for equality.

 

Dozens of people also celebrated at Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn on Friday. The area around the monument in the park turned into something like a dance floor, with speakers, music, and even a chorus performing. Many people danced with Biden-Harris signs and signs that said “America has spoken.”

 

The people gathered in the park said the work in battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania was reason enough to celebrate.

“Whether or not we get that 270 today, we still have a lot to celebrate in terms of people really coming out, all over the country, to make their voices heard through their ballots,” said one woman.

“We’re ready for the news and the country to announce Joe Biden as the winner,” said another. “And in a moment where all the votes are still being counted, we want to come together and be safely together and kind of hold what feels like the country while we’re waiting for an announcement that many of us are ready to celebrate.”

…Then They Protested

As the evening went on, the two groups in Manhattan ended up meeting up as they marched and merged into one large crowd of thousands of protesters.

People NY1 spoke to in Washington Square Park said they wanted to make sure Biden knew they had demands of the Democratic nominee even though they supported him. They said they planned to hold him accountable for racial justice.

“I think we need to make sure people aren’t under some false illusion that once Donald Trump leaves the White House…that suddenly everything is better. Because for Black people, we have always been under oppression,” said one protest organizer. She said they were marching to let Biden know that Black communities demanded equality and “more policing to be defunded and subsequently abolished.”

Specifically, protesters criticized police officers, some of whom followed the marchers while clad in riot gear, for the police killings of unarmed Black people across the United States.

As of this writing, there was no word of any arrests at the Friday night protests.

Protests in Manhattan have become heated in recent days. Thousands of people in the city protested Wednesday, demanding that every vote be counted. But the demonstrations the past two nights have also particularly focused on the police as demonstrators have denounced the NYPD’s heavy-handed presence and over 70 arrests.

The NYPD said it cuffed 56 people on Wednesday during the protests in Manhattan; 52 of those led to desk appearance tickets, but four people were slapped with more serious charges, including assault.

The demonstration started as a peaceful march from Midtown over the election. As protesters marched south towards Washington Square Park, things became contentious. Protesters said police were the aggressors and boxed them in while they were peacefully demonstrating.

"It was peaceful. They started attacking and tackling, people on bicycles," said one protester. "The NYPD was tackling peaceful protesters. We were trapped. They tried just arresting everyone in front of them."

"One block over, they cornered all of us. They had police on one side, police on the other, and they pushed in with their bikes, causing us to fall on each other," said another. "The girl linked next to me was arrested. There was probably seven or eight on the ground. Then, they forced us out of the square."

Then, on Thursday, police said they arrested another 19 people at protests, mostly in Union Square. One person was arrested for assaulting an officer.

One group of protesters gathered outside the Stonewall Inn and then walked east to Bond Street and Broadway, where there were skirmishes between police and protesters. NY1 crews spotted a heavy police presence and police vans in the area.

The NYPD said officers made an arrest there after the department said an officer "was pushed to the ground" and had a chain "pressed against his throat." Police say that person will be charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

In the heart of Union Square, video captured police on loudspeakers telling demonstrators to move out of the streets. When that didn’t happen, officers moved in and were seen shoving protesters.

 

Videos from the protest showed large crowds of officers at times rushing at demonstrators and shoving them while making arrests or trying to clear streets. Protesters maintained they were being peaceful.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was in the area and said he was pushed by police in one instance, while trying to intervene and deescalate the situation. He also said protests were peaceful overall, and that police were the ones aggressively clearing the area to make the arrests.

"For the most part, it seemed like the protesters were nonviolent," he said. "Obviously, there were some incidents that I was involved in, I'm trying to get some clarity on what occurred there. It just generally seemed like the response was a little heavier than what I'm seeing the response should be, and so that concerns me a lot."

Also at issue in recent days, according to protesters, is the NYPD’s use of the “kettling” tactic, in which police encircle and confine protesters within a tight space. Police then instruct demonstrators to leave or they will be arrested, but protesters say they are left with little to no room to leave.

The crowd control tactic has been used by police during protests in the US, Canada, and Europe. Activists say the method has been used to make arrests during police reform protests in the city as well.

The police department on Thursday denied ever using the “kettling” tactic. Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes at a news conference said the tactic was not part of any training guidance.

The NYPD, for its part, acknowledged on Thursday that officers responding to a protest in Greenwich Village on Wednesday night could have communicated better, but the department defended arrests that have been criticized as too aggressive, saying a small organized group of agitators armed with weapons hijacked peaceful protests.

The NYPD said the troublemakers came to the protests with plans to throw objects at police, start fires, break windows, and record arrests on camera for what the department described as anti-police propaganda. Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said these tactics were seen in Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis before being adopted in the city.

“What we have for the most part are groups of peaceful protesters, and within those groups basically using the larger crowd for cover,” Miller said.

Police allege the agitators assaulted officers, flashed lasers in officers’ eyes, interrupted radio communications, used bike scouts to monitor police movement to determine where they could block traffic and blocked traffic with construction barriers. According to the NYPD, some of the people arrested were repeat offenders.

The NYPD said these individuals caused minimal property damage, but the department shared photos of an array of weapons they said were confiscated, including illegal fireworks, knives, crowbars, stun guns, and hammers.

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This story includes reporting from Shannan Ferry, Alyssa Paolicelli, Dean Meminger, Lydia Hu, and Ruschell Boone.

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