They’ll be back! Cops arrest 334 (but officials mostly shrug) as Hamasites seize NYC streets

Pro-Hamas demonstrations continued to wreak havoc on New York City streets this week, shutting down the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges and the Holland Tunnel for several hours on Monday morning, then promising more mayhem in the days ahead.

In Monday’s action, the New York Police Department arrested 209 and the Port Authority Police Department arrested 125.

NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said many would receive misdemeanor charges and a ticket to appear in court.

Mayor Eric Adams said he understood “the pain of innocent lives being lost right now” but questioned the tactics used by the anti-Israel demonstrators.

Up to now, the city has been allowing demonstrators to disrupt city spaces almost at will, eventually arresting protestors to end blockages and quickly releasing them to disrupt again. The city did not reveal any plan to handle the demonstrations differently in the future.

“The right to protest does not give one the right to block bridges and tunnels, as we saw this morning,” Adams cautioned.

“The goal is to peacefully protest without doing major disruption to the city,” he said. “Some people are not just driving to and from, across our bridges to go to their place of employment, some of them are dealing with some real emergency type issues.”

Adams added, “I have been extremely clear — it gives us all pain to see innocent lives being lost right now, we need to do whatever is possible to end anything that is going to take the lives of innocent people, but Hamas must be destroyed, they are a terrorist organization.”

Adams called for every hostage to be released and, in a kumbaya moment, expressed hope for peaceful resolutions everywhere.

“Not just what is going on in the Middle East, but what is going on in Ukraine, and parts of the continent of Africa, there is no place for war and innocent people losing their lives,” Adams said.

Previous disruptions in New York City included a New Year’s Day effort to stop passengers from reaching their flights at JFK, takeovers at Grand Central Station abd the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station, and rolling street closures.

On Tuesday, two people who glued themselves to Sixth Avenue during the Thanksgiving Day Parade were released after plea-bargaining to a disorderly conduct violation, and not a criminal charge for which they were arrested in November.

The two told the judge that they were simply trying to support a cause they believe in, and  were ordered to “lead a law-abiding life” and not get rearrested for one year to uphold the plea deal, according to transcripts of their hearings reported by the NY Post.

“We are out here just taking action for the liberation of Palestine so that they have the right to freedom and for safety, which they don’t have now,” one of them said. “So we just have to liberate them and their people.”

In the hallway, the other person vowed, “I will get arrested again and again and again, and I will fight for my rights and I will fight for the rights of the people of Palestine until a cease-fire, and a full return of the land to the people of Palestine.”

When asked what he thought about the murder of innocent Jews on Oct. 7, the person said, “Armed occupation requires armed resistance.”

The disruptor added that there was no proof Hamas sexually assaulted its hostages and alleged that the IDF sexually abuses Palestinian women and children.

Monday’s “Shut it Down for Palestine” protests were reportedly led by groups including the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestinian Youth Movement (a group associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization).

“We jam the arteries of the city and we reclaim the bridges and tunnels — which are funded by our taxes and fares — in solidarity with Palestine and all who are immiserated by the forces of capitalism and imperialism,” Palestinian Youth Movement said on Instagram:

Protesters also chanted, “NYPD, KKK, IDF they’re all the same!” according to video posted on social media. Some sat down in the middle of major roadways, linking themselves together using zip ties and cement-filled tires, which forced cops to use power tools to get them apart.

Actress Susan Sarandon, 77, who was dropped by her talent agency for making anti-Jewish comments in November, said at the protest, “There’s no place for genocide,” according to footage shared on social media.

She was filmed standing on the Bowery as demonstrators clogged the Manhattan Bridge.

Elsewhere on Monday, a group of anti-Israel activists attempted to block an entrance at Dallas’s Love Field Airport, timed to the arrival of President Biden aboard Air Force One.

Police arrested 13 people in the protest co-organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement.

“We’re not going to let any of these politicians rest, including Biden, while Palestinians have no justice,” said Youth Movement spokesperson Nashwa Abdelwahed.