Reports: Several Business Vandalized, Looted In Advance Of New York City's Curfew
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It was another night of mayhem on the streets of the Big Apple.
As thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Monday to protest in support of George Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis last week, video obtained by CBS2's Kiran Dhillon shows looters emerging with items from a boarded-up Zumiez, a clothing store geared toward young people, near Union Square.
Dhillon was later granted entrance to the store by security and reported that it was completely cleaned out.
Nearby, a Citi Bike was tossed through the window of a vape shop just before police arrived on the scene, Dhillon reported.
The reports of looting then started flooding in from Chelsea to Flatiron and SoHo to Midtown. Among the stores destroyed were Michael Kors, Nintendo, Kate Spade, Duane Reade, and AT&T, according to various reports.
CBS2's Natalie Duddridge reported seeing a dozen men run into a Verizon store and steal every last piece of merchandise inside.
Making matters worse, many of the vandalized stores were already closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and now many, especially the mom and pop shops that were hit, may never reopen again.
The incidents happened just hours after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a curfew was put in place in the city from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. in the hope of quelling the violence and vandalism that had been seen over the previous few nights, including on Sunday in SoHo, where high-end stores like Chanel were targeted.
But despite the directive, many protesters were still marching through the city after 11 p.m.
Mayor de Blasio's press secretary Freddi Goldstein tweeted the curfew on Tuesday night is expected to start at 8 p.m. and run until 5 a.m. on Wednesday. In an effort to curb the looting and violence, the NYPD is expected to double its manpower on the streets from 4,000 officers to 8,000, with mandatory 12-hour shifts.
As has been the case since the demonstrations started, the vast majority of protests have been nonviolent and peaceful. One such protest Monday night was held in the form of a candlelight vigil outside Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
A solemn circle was formed thousands of people deep outside the arena, following an afternoon marching through the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of the borough.
The passion and frustration was unwavering on the fifth day of demonstrations, CBS2's Ali Bauman reported.
WATCH: Peace Protest Held Outside Barclays Center
"We are outraged. Enough. We are fed up," one protester said.
"Words can't describe how we feel sometimes. We just out here for our people. It's that simple," added Adeyiaka Akinwande.
MORE: Questions Raised About How NYPD Will Handle Future Protests
The peaceful moments followed a weekend of unrest made worse by questionably violent and aggressive actions by some NYPD officers, like video footage of a squad car driving into a crowd of protestors.
"We all human. Because they're police, that don't make them right," said Jasmine Quammy of Bed-Stuy.
Both the governor and the mayor said Monday there needs to be swifter discipline for police misconduct. It took the NYPD five years to fire officer Daniel Pantaleo in the Eric Garner chokehold case.
"There are some that use violence when they shouldn't. There are some that harbor racism in their hearts. These people should not be on the police force and it's our job to get them out," de Blasio said earlier Monday.
"Peace and justice, that's all we want," Quammy said.
