by Naveen Kumar
Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of lower Manhattan on Sunday for the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality, a rallying cry against police violence that combined the spirit of Pride with the ongoing calls of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Late afternoon reports on social media showed disturbing moments of confrontation after a largely peaceful march, with the police pushing through crowds of protesters and appearing to detain multiple people.
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast that two people were arrested in the act of graffiting a police vehicle, and that pepper spray was deployed against those who tried to intervene. (The use of pepper spray was “totally allowed,” the spokesperson said, as intervening in an arrest is illegal.)
Despite videos and social media posts that continue to surface showing police coming after the crowd, a department spokesperson otherwise noted the day’s events were peaceful without “widespread reports of violence or anything of that nature.”
Participants first gathered under the hot midday sun in front of City Hall and made their way north, up past the historic Stonewall Inn and eventually into Washington Square Park. Approaching the West Village, the crowd spanned nearly a dozen city blocks in length. Read more via Daily Beast
@queermarch/Instagram
Yesterday, June 28, 2020, 50 years after the first #ChristopherStreetLiberationMarch, and on the 51st anniversary of the #StonewallRebellion of 1969, history was made! 50K people showed up and showed out for the #QueerLiberationMarch for Black Lives and against police brutality. And nearly 400K people tuned in to watch the livestream. This march was entirely organized by a queer and trans army of hundreds of people who came together to make it all happen. No corporate sponsors and their whitewashed and heteronormative demands, no NYPD permit, no floats with cops and politicians waving at the crowd. #PRIDE was not cancelled this year, it was reclaimed. Stay tuned for more photos and updates. Make sure to continue post and hashtag your favorite moments. We’ll be posting them throughout the week.
Photos by @leandrojusten