Viral Video: NYPD Officer Hits Pro-Palestinian Protester Many Times in Bay Ridge!

A recent pro-Palestinian protest in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, turned violent when an NYPD supervisor was caught on video repeatedly punching a demonstrator. The incident, which has sparked outrage and prompted an internal investigation, occurred during a protest organized by the advocacy group Within Our Lifetime on Saturday afternoon.

The protest was held in observance of Nakba Day, which commemorates the 1948 displacement of Palestinians following the establishment of Israel. This year’s demonstration was part of a series of pro-Palestinian protests that have taken place across New York City in response to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which escalated after the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel.

Videos posted on social media by an independent reporter show a chaotic scene at the intersection of Bay Ridge Avenue and 5th Avenue. In the footage, police officers are seen attempting to clear demonstrators from the roadway. A supervisor, identifiable by his white shirt, is shown grabbing a protester, pushing him to the ground, and punching him in the face at least three times. The protester, visibly bleeding from the head, is later seen in handcuffs.

The NYPD has stated that they are “looking into” the incident, but have not provided further details about the circumstances that led to the altercation or why the demonstrator was targeted. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry shared drone footage on social media showing a large crowd of demonstrators blocking traffic, including one individual who climbed on top of an MTA bus.

NOW: As pro-Palestine protesters reached an intersection, officers rushed in and grabbed people out of the crowd seemingly at random

Officers tackled multiple protesters to the ground and then proceeded to punch them pic.twitter.com/fyPfA8emyM

— katie smith (@probablyreadit) May 18, 2024

Daughtry defended the police response, citing the unlawful blocking of roadways as the reason for the arrests. He stated that 41 people were arrested during the protest. However, the aggressive nature of the police response has drawn criticism from various quarters.

Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder of Within Our Lifetime, claimed that the police were intent on violence from the outset. “It just seemed like from the beginning they were itching to grab us and hurt us in any way,” said Kiswani, 29. She alleged that police officers assaulted multiple demonstrators during the event.

This incident comes on the heels of a recent legal settlement that requires the NYPD to reform its response to protests. The settlement, which resulted from lawsuits filed by participants in the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, mandates updated training for officers and new guidelines to prevent unnecessary use of force. Despite these reforms, the response to the Bay Ridge protest suggests that challenges remain in the department’s approach to handling demonstrations.

Council member Justin Brannan, who represents the Bay Ridge neighborhood, condemned the police actions. He noted that this year’s Nakba Day demonstration was smaller than in previous years and argued that the aggressive response from the NYPD was unwarranted. “These were not our local cops.

There was a ‘zero tolerance’ edict sent down from headquarters which escalated everything and made it worse,” Brannan said. “I’m still waiting on information and details about the arrests that were made but from my vantage point, the response appeared pre-emptive, retaliatory, and cumulatively aggressive.”

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The clash between protesters and police in Bay Ridge highlights the ongoing tensions in New York City regarding the handling of demonstrations and the rights of citizens to protest. As the NYPD continues its investigation, community leaders and advocacy groups are calling for transparency and accountability to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.