The video “looting street parties” in Soho went viral late Tuesday – right when Mayor Bill de Blasio downplayed the level of chaos on national television.
Snippet posted to Twitter shows hundreds of happy people along the unknown Soho road, some dancing on cars and others recording wild scenes on their cellphones.
It was unclear when the video – titled “The full looting street party at SoHo” – was taken, but posted at 10:21 a.m., after de Blasio called CNN.
“I just want to fix one thing, if I can, that we had a really disturbing situation last night in Midtown, Manhattan and in one area in the Bronx,” he said, referring to a series of looting and destruction that destroyed the city. Monday night.
“But we have no unrest, there is no looting in Brooklyn and Queens and Staten Island, and for most of the Bronx and for most of Manhattan, I really want to set it right.”
The looters destroyed parts of Manhattan and the Bronx on Monday night before 11 p.m. curfew the whole city. 8 pm curfew and traffic restrictions were implemented on Tuesday night, resulting in dozens of protesters being arrested near the Battery Tunnel.
Looters hit parts of Manhattan for the third night in a row Tuesday, although the damage appeared to be less than the night before.
De Blasio said protests over George Floyd’s death involving police were largely “peaceful.”
“There is a small anarchist group that is cruel and there is a small criminal element which is cruel, but you are talking about a very small percentage compared to the vast majority of peaceful protesters,” he said on CNN.
