Several activists in New York City and a mayoral candidate were arrested during peaceful protests on Tuesday morning, the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd.
According to the New York Times and WPIX-TV in New York City, about 10 people were taken into custody in lower Manhattan Tuesday morning near the Holland Tunnel.
According to the Times, the demonstrators knelt near the entrance to the tunnel near Canal and Houston streets for nine minutes and 29 seconds to pay tribute to Floyd. They were arrested for blocking traffic following their demonstration, and all went into custody peacefully.
Among those taken into custody was mayoral candidate Shaun Donovan, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration and Obama's former director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Hawk Newsome and @ShaunDonovanNYC among those just arrested by NYPD. @PIX11News pic.twitter.com/5zBOqfW8GV
— Katie Corrado (@KatieCorradoTV) May 25, 2021
WPIX reports that Hawk Newsome, the co-founder of the Greater New York chapter of Black Lives Matter, was also arrested.
Floyd was murdered in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. His death sparked several months of mostly peaceful protests against systemic racism and police brutality.
