New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Sunday blasted ICE as “cruel and inhumane” after a violent clash between anti-ICE protesters and cops outside a Brooklyn hospital the night before.
“They do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety, and I’ve said that even directly to the president,” Hizzoner told a Gothamist reporter of the federal immigration agents.
The far-left mayor was out and about for the Five-Boro bike tour, which he briefly rode in, when he spoke about the unruly showdown — when protesters blocked the hospital’s emergency entrances and exits and threw debris in the street to try to disrupt traffic.
At least nine people were taken into custody during the mayhem, which erupted after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a man and brought him to the site for treatment.
The chaos peaked when the ICE agents left the hospital with the man around 2 a.m. Sunday, dousing some members of the mob with pepper spray and speeding away in an SUV.
Nurse accused the NYPD of coordinating with ICE by letting the agents’ vehicle get through the crowd, claiming such cooperation is forbidden under New York’s “sanctuary city” law.
“What I witnessed during the discharge appeared to be direct coordination between ICE and the NYPD, with officers cordoning off the ambulance bay to allow ICE to move the individual into their vehicle and leave,” she said in a statement on social media Sunday.
Footage from the scene posted online show protesters jeering and yelling obscenities at cops and hauling trash cans across the street.
Amid the mayhem, a small scuffle between a police officer and a protester turned into a massive brawl, with cops and demonstrators tackling and swinging on each other.
The NYPD said its officers were called to the hospital to maintain order and did not cooperate with ICE in its operation.
Read the full article here
