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NYPD Arrests Legal Observer During Occupy City Hall Protests
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jul 3, 2020
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By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jul 3, 2020
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A legal observer was arrested Friday morning and remained in custody by the afternoon, according to Gideon Oliver, a lawyer speaking for the NLG's New York City chapter. At least one other person was arrested, he added.
The NYPD confirmed that there were two arrests made near City Hall Park on Centre Street about 10 a.m.
In a video posted on Instagram live in the aftermath of the arrests, observers told someone filming that a protester was reading out the record of an officer with various complaints against him.
"While we was exposing him—he [the protester] was right here on the gate exposing him—he ordered the officers to come around in riot gear when we was protesting and talking peacefully," a protester said in a video on Occupy City Hall's Instagram page.
During that arrest, officers took a legal observer into custody as well, the people said on the video. At one point during the livestream, a person can be seen on film being detained by officers, with their hands being pulled behind their back while they kneeled.
Daniel Mayo, 32, of Queens was arrested for using the bullhorn as well as making "threatening statements," NYPD spokesperson Sophia Mason said, but she did not have information on the alleged statements. Mayo was also charged with obstruction of governmental administration, disorderly conduct, having marijuana, among others.
The second person arrested was 27-year-old Ryan Minett, of Long Island, who was detained for obstruction of governmental administration, disorderly conduct, among others, the spokesperson said. She did not have information on whether either were legal observers.
Prior to the arrests, observers on the Instagram livestream said protesters were reading out information about the conduct of an officer via records on a website tracking police misconduct and had otherwise been hanging out peacefully.
"We've been relaxing. We've been chilling," said the person filming the livestream. "They [the officers] look like they're ready for war."
An officer at the scene said on the video that the protesters could yell and scream as much as they wanted, "but at a certain point, you can't be following somebody consistently blowing a bullhorn in their face going on and on and on and on."
Officers at the scene outside of City Hall Park said a permit was needed to use a bullhorn and that it was not allowed.
Using something to amplify sound requires a permit from the NYPD, but it was not clear why officers chose to begin making arrests Friday morning after weeks of permit-less protests with various speakers or bullhorns.
Since June 23rd, protests have occupied City Hall Park as a part of mass demonstrations in recent weeks, demanding the City Council defund the NYPD's $6 billion budget by at least $1 billion ahead of the budget negotiations June 30th.
Hours into the evening on Tuesday, hundreds sat cross-legged watching the budget vote play out—where city councilmembers approved the city's budget, which for the NYPD, will take school safety agents off the NYPD, cap overtime, and cancel two police academy classes. The finalized police budget was criticized as watered down—a "house of cards" as one councilmember put it.
Protesters were pissed, and since then, many have remained at City Hall Park.
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legal observer
Occupy City Hall
nlg
2020 protests
Sydney Pereira
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