Gay pride nyc on parade
NYPD officers were seen in riot gear using pepper spray on parkgoers.At least three people were also arrested earlier on Sunday afternoon.A food vendor was punched in the face several times late on Sunday night as the city's Pride celebrations continued in Washington Square Park.That said, we’ll still be there to ensure traffic safety and good order during this huge, complex event.Revelers attack food vendor and clash with cops in Washington Square Park as peaceful Pride celebrations spiral into chaos in NYC's new crime hotspot She added: "The idea of officers being excluded is disheartening and runs counter to our shared values of inclusion and tolerance.
The New York Police Department commissioner apologized for the raid during a briefing in 2019, calling it "wrong, plain and simple.”ĭetective Sophia Mason, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department, said on Saturday the department's “annual work to ensure a safe, enjoyable Pride season has been increasingly embraced by its participants.” The Queer Liberation March aimed for a protest vibe, saying the main Pride march was too heavily policed by the same department that raided Stonewall a half century earlier. In 2019, there were two marches in Manhattan after some in the community concluded that the annual parade had become too commercialized. Pride NYC's announcement Saturday follows a division among organizers in recent years in planning for celebrations of LGBTQ pride in New York City. Pride season occurs this year amid activism inspired by the response to racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death last year at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
The uprising is largely credited with fueling the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Those marches came a year after the 1969 uprising outside Manhattan's Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in response to a police raid. The disruptions frustrated activists who had hoped to collectively mark the 50th anniversary of the first Gay Pride parades and marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in 1970. The parade is scheduled for June after the coronavirus prevented many Pride events worldwide last year, including in New York which instead hosted virtual performances in front of masked participants and honored front-line workers in the pandemic crisis. The group called the ban an “abrupt about-face” and said the decision “to placate some of the activists in our community is shameful.” Word of the ban came out Friday when the Gay Officers Action League said in a release it was disheartened by the decision. Police will provide first response and security “only when absolutely necessary as mandated by city officials,” the group said, adding it hoped to keep police officers at least one city block away from event perimeter areas where possible. It will also increase the event's security budget to boost the presence of community-based security and first responders while reducing the police department's presence. “The sense of safety that law enforcement is meant to provide can instead be threatening, and at times dangerous, to those in our community who are most often targeted with excessive force and/or without reason,” the group said.