Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Mayor De Blasio Says 1,300 New Yorkers Arrested For Violating His Curfew Should Still Face Charges
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Jul 16, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
C.S. Muncy / Gothamist
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Jul 16, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
More than 1,000 New Yorkers are still facing potential fines and jail time for violating a curfew imposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio on June 1st, which was created in response to property damage and looting in the early days of protests following the police killing of George Floyd. At his daily press briefing on Thursday, de Blasio declined to say whether he thought those people should still be punished for the crime of staying out past 8 p.m.
“It’s just too simplistic to say that’s the whole story,” de Blasio said. “We had the curfew for a purpose because we saw too much violence of different kinds, and we had to end the violence and we did end the violence. And now adjudicating what should happen in each case depends on the specifics of the case. That’s just all there is to it.”
Many of the 1,349 New Yorkers who still have open criminal summonses solely for violating de Blasio’s curfew were physically detained for hours by the police. Others were seriously injured by members of the NYPD who were enforcing the mayor’s curfew, which de Blasio ended up rescinding one night early.
Nearly half of those who were written criminal summonses for curfew violation were Black, according to data from the NYPD—569 people were Black or Black and Hispanic, 280 were white Hispanics, 413 were white, 59 were Asian.
Violating curfew is a Class B Misdemeanor, punishable with a fine of up to $500 and as much as three months in jail or both, according to New York State penal code. Many curfew violators are due in summons court in the coming months.
The curfew violations stand apart from the criminal cases pending on charges related to the protests, like unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct. As of last week, the DAs in Brooklyn and Manhattan had dismissed 227 of those 1,126 criminal cases.
District Attorneys in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, where the vast majority of protest arrests and summons occurred, had all pledged to dismiss low-level criminal charges. But their offices typically don’t intervene in criminal summons court where the curfew summonses are adjudicated, though it is within their jurisdiction to do so, according to court officials.
In the past, the NYPD, the state’s Office of Court Administration and District Attorneys offices have coordinated to unilaterally dismiss certain kinds of cases, like outstanding summonses warrants for missed court dates on low level offenses.
Last week, public defenders across the city called on the District Attorneys to override that long-standing policy of not weighing in in summons court, to step in and toss all of the curfew violations, as well as other protest arrests and ones for social distancing enforcement violations.
Representatives from the Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bronx DAs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project called de Blasio’s remarks “a deflection.”
“NYPD used the curfew against protestors—not looters—and arguably as a means to suppress protected first amendment activity,” she said.
Additional reporting by Jake Offenhartz.
Tagged
nypd
curfew
bill de blasio
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .