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reporter, researcher, canary in the coal mine🌻100% people-funded🌻tips: taliajane@protonmail.com🌻 expect typos🌻 be good; i love you ❤️‍🔥🖤

May 6, 2023, 44 tweets

Happening soon: People are gathering at Broadway-Lafayette subway station for a 2pm #JusticeForJordanNeely protest.

Once again, police presence is substantial inside the station. 2 police vans stationed outside one entrance. At least 8 cops on the platform plus 2 anti-terrorism.

A vigil for #JordanNeely is set up by stairs going into the platform. A member of @PassengersUnite is speaking to cameras. “This never should have happened,” he said. States criminalization of poverty largely happens on the outskirts in predominantly black & brown communities.

Protest is gathering at E Houston & Lafayette, above the station.

Heard a claim that the MTA is rerouting to avoid Broadway-Lafayette but unconfirmed. @ndhapple?

A small group arrived and began singing “Justice For Jordan Neely,” and are now leading the growing crowd in a song chant ahead of the event’s estimated beginning. Organizers state they want to give people time to commute.

The growing crowd gathering for #JordanNeely looks to be about 200. Spilling into the street. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March for #JordanNeely happening now in #Manhattan has moved into the street and is continuing to grow.

I count 6 white shirts, NYPD Legal, and 4 Community Affairs. Also aww a smattering of patrol cops and what looks to be either 1 SRG or anti-terrorism cop. NYPD vans are staging on Crosby and E Houston.

Traffic is now shut down and being redirected between Crosby and Lafayette.

The one cop I wasn’t sure about is Transit Bureau Anti-Terrorism, not SRG.

Look at cop presence currently plus Qween Jean’s arrival. As protestors recognized her, she was met with a surge of cheers.

“Stand up, fight back!” chant led by Qween Jean in the middle of Houston & Lafayette

Spotted a Community Affairs cop who was also at this morning’s clinic defense who was *also* at Wednesday’s vigil-turned-chaos by an overly aggressive NYPD response. “I’m glad you guys see what we see,” he said in response to me noting the NYPD set the wrong tone.

“The cops just do what their told. The problem is the people in charge,” he said. I pointed out that there were 6 white shirts here and a sizable police presence, again. “Nikas is in charge. When Nikas is here, it’ll be safe.”

We’ll see.

A woman climbs on top of a van parked on the street, prompting police to gather behind her. Qween Jean gets on a megaphone and notes “No property is being damaged!”

Woman on the van then leads a chant.

“If there are no charges, New York will not know peace.”

Van speech, cut into 2 here. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

#JusticeForJordanNeely march on the move now in Manhattan.

A white shirt and half dozen patrol cops with him joined the march, enraging protestors who used cowbells to alert people to their presence within the march, prompting the cops to move back onto the sidewalk.

March went to Union Square and then doubled back. Two people detained, one was on the ground and a second jumped off a scaffolding to help them. No idea what’s going on. First person got surrounded by cops. Not clear if they were fighting or what.

Not sure what’s going on. Lots of scooters and then SRG poured out and staged on a side street. A bus driver letting riders off the bus.

Unclear if they were part of the protest or just happenstance. Edit/correx one was standing on a planter and the second was on the ground. Person on the ground was surrounded and arrested with metal cuffs, not flex cuffs SRG carries. No known why.

UPDATE: Per witness: First person was walking too slowly and close to a cop. Cop bumped into him, then tackled him. Another person jumped off a planter to help the person tackled. Both arrested.

March continuing north on Madison.

“Hey-hey! Ho-ho! Daniel Penny’s got to go!”

There’s a shirtless guy climbing streetlights to pose for photos and people keep coming up to me to ask if I’ve seen “the conservative.” He’s a guy who got accused of being an antifa infiltrator for having an anarchy A neck tattoo, but has repeatedly stated he’s a Trump supporter

Earlier on in the march he was filming himself trying to provoke cops and people quickly wrote him off as an agitator and ID’d him as “the conservative.”

A reporter for the New York Post is in the march. People started yelling “The New York Post is here! Remember how they wrote about Jordan Neely!”

They then left him alone.

“Get off your phones and join us!” a #JusticeForJordanNeely protestor calls out to onlookers filming from Bryant Park as the march moves past. She then scolds a group of young men for laughing at her pleas, which they laugh at further.

Qween Jean encourages people to join the protest, speaks on how black people pleading for help are ignored, that #JordanNeely was ignored “the same as we’re being ignored right now.”

March sits in the street next to Bryant Park. Organizers pass out bottled water as attendees clap and sing to Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us.”

Following, an organizer asked for 20 volunteers. March is now back on the move, heading north on 6th Ave through Midtown.

#JusticeForJordanNeely march today in Manhattan.

Looks like tourists and New Yorkers out and about today are increasingly joining the protest.

All week I’ve overheard people talking about #JordanNeely’s murder. They might not recognize the name, but they know the story.

Another cop just got bounced off the line by other cops. Seems some words were exchanged. Earlier a cop got bounced for putting her hands on someone.

Just noticed the cop that got bounced is now with a group with a white shirt and the other cop that got bounced earlier is with them. Is this the Timeout Division? Are these newbies? No clue.

Pit stop in front of De Beers and Manolo Blahnik, as staff gaze on.

Content warning: Slurs

The guy with a bowl cut briefly entered the street to pose behind the march so his friend could take a photo of him flipping it off. He then mimicked curbstomping someone as his friends laughed. They then voiced totally rational, normal opinions.

Now entering the subway station at Lexington. NYPD allowed the whole march through without swiping.

Holy shit. Protestors stopped the F train by holding the doors open and while cops were trying to get them out of the doors, others jumped on the tracks on the opposing side.

6 people arrested when NYPD was making people leave the subway.

#JusticeForJordanNeely protest clears from the Lexington Ave subway after dozens jump on the tracks and hold an F train in the station. #JordanNeely was strangled to death on the F train. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

An ambulance was called for a protestor who had a panic attack after leaving the station.

This prompted the NYPD to play an LRAD ordering people to the sidewalk. Arrested 1. When they moved away, people cheered. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

This cat-and-mouse game continued for awhile. NYPD would move in using LRAD, make arrests, then clear out. People would enter the street, blocked by NYPD, to cheer their departure, then they’d play the LRAD again.

Surge of NYPD SRG flooding across 3rd Avenue this evening to arrest people for standing in the street that the NYPD was already blocking by also being in the street.

This follows a rowdy protest for #JordanNeely that shut down the Lexington Ave subway.

The last 2 arrests NYPD made: A homeless rights activist who witnessed the aftermath of #JordanNeely’s death, and Jose LaSalle — the founder of Copwatch Patrol Unit.

Last time the NYPD arrested LaSalle, they cost the city nearly a million dollars: ny1.com/nyc/all-boroug… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

I counted 6 arrested on the platform and (I think) 5 above ground.

Some NYPD is still on the scene but situation has otherwise dispersed, and jail support is underway.

I am hearing 12 arrests, not 11.

2 people received medical treatment resulting from injuries received during arrest. A third left the scene in an ambulance after suffering a massive panic attack & seizures.

One cop was walked to a car to “sit for a little bit.” This is the cop others are claiming broke his leg.

No info from DCPI confirming MOS injury and no confirmation on arrest count.

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