A Bay Ridge crowd reportedly intervened last Wednesday night when cops attempted to arrest an organizer for using a megaphone. The protest occurred outside a Bay Ridge theater, where officers soon found themselves surrounded by a Brooklyn crowd chanting “NYPD KKK.” A video by TikToker @nyxnyc appears to show the crowd surrounding the cops as the officers make their way out following the arrest attempt. The outcome of that alleged arrest attempt remains unclear. While Donald Trump continues to expand ICE and embolden white supremacists, it appears Bay Ridge is having none of it.
Bay Ridge Crowd Stands Against Cops
The video shows blue-jacketed New York cops moving through a crowd of Bay Ridge protestors while additional officers watch from behind a metal barricade. While some protestors waved Palestinian flags, others held up signs or shouted slogans. Some were there to denounce the Palestinian genocide, while others stood in condemnation of the NYPD, ICE, and the increasing militarization of American police under Trump and Musk.
According to @nyxnyc, it was when the cops attempted to arrest an organizer that Bay Ridge drove the NYPD out. Whether the organizer was ultimately arrested or not is unclear, but from the video, it appears that the crowd was successful in preventing the illegal arrest. One commenter pointed out the logic of citizen interventions and de-arrests as a protest strategy, saying “They need to be mobbed on when they try to make an arrest. This shows why. They back down real quick.” As another commenter put it,
They can only get away with what we ALLOW them to. We are unstoppable together.
Democrats have proved themselves to be toothless in Congress, offering almost no meaningful resistance. The same can’t be said of the people. Protests like the one in Bay Ridge have become more common. Even conservative politicians are now getting backlash at town hall events. If Bay Ridge is anything to judge by, ever more voices are rising in defiance. More people are putting their bodies on the line, in Brooklyn and beyond.
