Gov. Andrew Cuomo orders curfew for New York City
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced a curfew for New York City, following four nights of sometimes violent protests over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
“There’s gonna be a curfew in New York City that we think could be helpful and more importantly there’s going to be an increase in the force in New York City,” the third term Democrat said on the Upstate radio show WAMC The Roundtable.
The curfew will run from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., and see the 4,000 NYPD officers who flooded city streets during Sunday’s protests increase twofold.
“There will be double that, about 8,000 [cops] tonight,” said Cuomo. “It’s from 11 [p.m.] to 5 [a.m.] tonight and then we’ll see where we are tomorrow.”
Among those exempt from the order will be essential workers, the homeless and the press, according to a City Hall source.
Cuomo said that the drastic move was necessitated by the uniquely violent looting, vandalism and clashes with police that have gripped the Big Apple, which he and other officials have attributed to outside interlopers hijacking for their anarachistic purposes what were supposed to be peaceful protests.
“Last night was a bad night in New York City,” he said. “It’s just in New York City by the way, not in Upstate.”
Cuomo had raised the possibility of a curfew earlier in the day, and said that he would confer with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“I support and protect peaceful protest in this city. The demonstrations we’ve seen have been generally peaceful,” said de Blasio in a joint statement with Cuomo announcing the curfew. “We can’t let violence undermine the message of this moment.
“Tonight, to protect against violence and property damage, the Governor and I have decided to implement a citywide curfew.”
“I’ll be honest with you, we could impose a curfew today,” he said. “The problem is, people need to listen to a curfew, that’s not going to happen, first and foremost. If people think it will, they don’t understand what’s going on.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it was unclear what penalties would be imposed on those found out past curfew.