NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Mayor Eric Adams told 1010 WINS on Monday that the city will review the NYPD response to a pro-Palestinian protest in Brooklyn on Saturday after video surfaced showing an NYPD supervisor punching a demonstrator on the ground, but the mayor called the fray an "isolated incident" and said officers did "a commendable job under very difficult circumstances."
More than 40 people were arrested after hundreds descended on Bay Ridge on Saturday to mark the annual Nakba Day rally. Protesters filled the street, leading to clashes as police tried to clear the area near Fifth and Bay Ridge avenues.
Viral video shot by an independent journalist shows the NYPD supervisor repeatedly punching a demonstrator on the ground amid the chaotic rally.
"After every demonstration, we do an after-incident briefing," Adams told 1010 WINS Morning Drive anchor Scott Stanford. "We're going to analyze that."
"But let's be extremely clear," the mayor said. "I don't like the fact that people can call for the destruction of America. I don't like the fact that people can wave terrorist flags. I don't like any of that. But those are protected, constitutional rights that you have the right to protest."
Adams appeared to be referencing that, in addition to Palestinian flags, some demonstrators were seen carrying the flags of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, both of which are classified as terrorist groups by the U.S. State Department.
"What you don't have the right to do is ride on top of buses," Adams continued. "You don't have a right to spit in the faces of police officers, to destroy property, to resist arrest, to try to take a person under control of police, try to take them back. That's not acceptable. It's not going to happen in the city."
"And so that isolated incident, we will review, but those police officers did a commendable job under very difficult circumstances," the mayor said.
According to the NYPD, some protesters spat and threw objects at officers, while others shot off flares, scrawled graffiti, jumped on a moving MTA bus, and resisted or interfered with arrests.
Some local elected officials and civil rights advocates have called out the police response, describing it as "aggressive."
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Democrat who represents the area, told the New York Times, "It certainly seems like the police came ready for a much more aggressive and a much more confrontational demonstration than perhaps they had gotten."
Gounardes also wrote on X that the area is "home to the largest Palestinian community in NY, who've demonstrated for years without being met with such aggression."
City Council Member Justin Brannan, also a Democrat representing the area, told the paper that it appeared police came from all over the city at the direction of NYPD headquarters. "These were not our local cops," Brannan said. "Clearly, there was a zero-tolerance edict sent down from [1 Police Plaza], which escalated everything and made it worse."
Brannan said that to him "the response appeared pre-emptive, retaliatory and cumulatively aggressive."
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, also said in a statement, "The aggressive escalation by the NYPD's Strategic Response Group yesterday in Bay Ridge was a violation of New Yorkers' right to speak out and risks chilling political expression. NYCLU protest monitors witnessed violent arrests, protestor injuries, and even arrests of credential members of the press."
The NYPD pushed back Sunday on social media against the criticism, which included claims by protest organizer Nerdeen Kiswani, of the group Within Our Lifetime, that police officers "came ready to fight."
The department released a video, about 90 seconds in length, featuring clips from some of the more than 60 Bay Ridge residents who called 911 to express concern about the demonstration.
The department said about 90% of the demonstrators arrested were not from Bay Ridge.
"This was not a peaceful protest by some," Kaz Daughtry, the NYPD deputy commissioner of operations, wrote on X.