Revolting. Gothamist on the NYPD ***escorting*** Trump supporters who plowed through BLM protesters in a car yesterday.
—Erika
The vehicle used by a driver to plow through a crowd of Black Lives Matter marchers in Times Square on Thursday was carrying a group of Trump-supporting counterprotesters who had just received an NYPD escort, according to police and videos of the incident.
A spokesperson for the NYPD said the black Ford Taurus was filled with several counterprotesters, who had been told to leave the area shortly after 8 p.m. They were being ushered by police officers through the parking lot of a nearby hotel, but “missed the turn,” the spokesperson said, and instead drove straight toward the crowd of protesters who’d emerged from Duffy Square into the roadway on 46th Street.
Video taken at the scene shows an NYPD officer helping the counter-demonstrators into the vehicle.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Friday morning that police were still investigating whether a crime was committed. The vehicle has not been located and no arrests have been made, the department confirmed. The spokesperson said the car was not used by the NYPD.
The vehicle’s license plate matches that of another car frequently shared on social media by Hakim Gibson, a pro-NYPD activist who currently runs a “law enforcement support page.” The Ford Taurus appears to be a former police car purchased from a police auction. According to Facebook posts, Gibson recently outfitted the car with a push bumper and spotlight, joking online that other drivers had often mistaken him for a police officer.
Video shows that Gibson attended the counter-demonstration in Times Square with Juliet Germanotta, a transgender pro-Trump activist who’s been arrested multiple times for pouring paint on the Black Lives Matter mural outside Trump Tower. Germanotta was among a handful of pro-Trump demonstrators who heckled Black Lives Matter marchers at the start of the demonstration.
“Take off your masks, stop being a sheep, there is no pandemic,” Germanotta, who sported a Trump mask pulled down to her chin, shouted at protesters earlier in the night.
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