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New York City Will Impose 8 P.M. Curfew Tonight Through Sunday
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jun 2, 2020
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Frank Franklin II/AP/Shutterstock
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jun 2, 2020
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For the second night in a row, New York City will implement a curfew in hopes of preventing looting and vandalism following the wave of citywide protests against police violence and the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
Tuesday night's curfew will begin at 8 p.m. During his press conference on Tuesday morning, de Blasio said the curfew would be in effect through Sunday.
City officials notably pushed up the start time by three hours after Monday's 11 p.m. curfew after dozens of stores, including Macy's in Herald Square, were broken into. The looting began as early as 7 p.m., when an Aldo store and a Nike store, both located on 5th Avenue, were targeted. Many of those looting appeared to be teenagers.
“We’re seeing too much of this activity tonight,” the mayor said during an interview on NY1. "The idea of going to 8:00 p.m. is it’s still light out. 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. So, we're going to just take the next obvious steps and have a curfew that begins while it's still light out at 8:00 p.m. [Tuesday]."
The curfew will lift at 5 a.m. and is expected to once again exempt essential employees, including the media, the homeless, and those seeking medical attention.
On Monday, many openly defied the curfew, with hundreds of protesters walking up 5th Avenue in Midtown chanting “fuck your curfew." The crackdown by police was not limited to looters. Many peaceful protesters were seen being detained as well.
Curfews, which have now been instituted in 40 U.S. cities where protests are taking place, have traditionally been controversial. They have not been instituted in New York City in recent memory.
Jumaane Williams, the city's public advocate, criticized the measure on Monday, which included doubling the number of police officers to 8,000.
"While I understand the potential benefits of a curfew, this is neither the right moment nor the right process for imposing one and adding an additional 4,000 officers to our streets," he said, in a statement. "At this moment and in this way it could escalate tension, not alleviate them."
Amid videos of police clashing with demonstrators, some elected officials have said that the mayor has lost control of the protests, which has been largely peaceful.
On Tuesday morning, U.S. Representative Max Rose, a freshman Democrat who is a captain in the Army National Guard, called for the deployment of the National Guard. Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he has the National Guard on standby for cities and towns should they need additional law enforcement, but he added that New York City has the largest police force in the country.
"Last night demonstrated that the Mayor has lost control of situation once and for all," Rose tweeted. "If we are going to enforce an 8:00 p.m. curfew tonight, then the National Guard must be deployed to assist with that and that alone."
Reporting contributed by Nick Pinto and Jake Offenhartz
Tagged
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George Floyd
protests
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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