#Protesters burn #Americanflags yanked from people’s porches before #officers swooped in. #burnflag #Queens #protest #NYPD pic.twitter.com/3wUev2LgEh
— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) October 7, 2020
Captain Louron Hall, the NYPD’s 104th Precinct new commanding officer, told QNS officers didn’t stop last Tuesday’s protesters from taking flags off of Maspeth residents’ homes — which resulted in them burning them — because they didn’t witness it as it was happening.
“We were instructed to allow people to exercise their first amendment rights, but also to make sure no violence or vandalism took place,” Captain Hall said.
The protest was scheduled to take place from Brooklyn to Maspeth, and had about 100 individuals marching against police unions and QAnon on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Before the protest began, Captain Hall said the 104th Precinct received information that it would begin at the 108th Precinct and head toward the 104th.
That evening, the Jefferson L train station stop was being skipped while police barricaded the exits and entrances. Before the protest took off, an altercation between maskless police officers and a protester inside of his pickup truck took place, which culminated in the driver getting a summons for leaving their car door slightly open.
Throughout the march toward Maspeth, where protesters claimed President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association Ed Mullins either lived or had property, several police cars as well as police on bikes trailed them.
Captain Hall said that because police officers trailed behind the protesters, they didn’t witness when some of them began to take the U.S. flags from residents’ homes.
“I will tell you this, if officers would have seen the actual taking of the flags, they would have intervened in the way they did when they set them on fire,” Captain Hall said. “The mere burning of the flags, regardless how poor it looks, is their first amendment right. [But] officers took issue with it because of the danger it poses to everyone.”
Before protesters could light a large fire, police on bikes swooped in, causing the protest to disband.
What the hell is going on at the NYPD? This new police captain is as befuddled as Baghdad Bob describing what happened at this botched protest. Seems like Commissioner Shea's gaslighter spin control methods describing these protests have trickled down or are policy now.
