A smashed library screen at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn (Rhododendrites / CC BY-SA)
June 2, 2020 By Allie Griffin
New York City will have another curfew tonight — but three hours earlier than Monday’s after looters smashed store windows and stole pricey items for a second day in a row.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last night that New Yorkers must be off city streets by 8 p.m. Tuesday. This morning he announced that the 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew would be in place for the rest of the week.
“I’ve spoken with [NYPD] Commissioner Shea and we’ve decided there should be a curfew again … and we want to extend that curfew beginning at 8:00 PM,” de Blasio said.
Organized groups of looters used crowbars and other items to smash windows of storefronts along 5th Avenue following a peaceful protest against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis officer.
The looters broke into Best Buy, Nike, Aldo Microsoft, Michael Kors and Nintendo stores in Rockefeller Center before Monday’s 11 p.m. curfew, according to the New York Post.
The night earlier, people tore down boards and smashed the glass of high-end stores, like Chanel, in Soho — which prompted yesterday’s original curfew.
The chaos that repeated last night is what prompted the mayor to make tonight’s curfew earlier — and before dark.
“The idea of going to 8:00 PM is it’s still light out,” de Blasio told NY1. “And that’s really what we saw this evening and last night, is when it got dark is when people attempted to do this kind of activity.”
Police officers will also be working 12-hour shifts to keep the NYPD presence high.
“We just will not accept this kind of criminal activity in New York City,” de Blasio said.
Essential workers, members of the media and people in need of emergency medical help are exempt from the curfew.
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Everyone should go out and have a candlelight vigil for those murdered by cops and passed from Covid. Cops should stay in their stations. We need to heal, not have another heel on our throats. This is a democracy, not a dictatorship.