Democracy Now reports events witnessed by reporters Ryan Devereaux and Amy Goodman on Saturday night.
RYAN DEVEREAUX: Yes, that’s absolutely—it’s absolutely correct. It was dangerous on a number of levels: just the sheer amount of people; the horses, which are unpredictable, in that crowd where no one could get away; and then these teetering towers of steam.
AMY GOODMAN: And then talk about the barricades.
RYAN DEVEREAUX: Correct. As I mentioned, the officers would at times pick up the barricades. You know, six or so officers would pick up the barricades by their uprights and use them as sort of broad shields and push them into the crowd. There was one point when there was a metal piece of the barricade that had stuck out perpendicular, and that was shoved into the crowd right near where I was standing. It stopped just short of my stomach. I told the officers that this is dangerous. They really could have hurt somebody there.
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, because of the number of people, the thousands of people in Times Square, those at the very front, where we were, at the front of the barricade, there was absolutely nowhere to go when the police said, “Move back,” and started pushing back, and when the horses were there.
RYAN DEVEREAUX: That’s exactly the issue, is that there was no place for these people to go. Even though the NYPD was saying, “Move back, move back,” there was no way to move back. It was a sea of people.
AMY GOODMAN: It was extremely tense. It looked like there were going to be even more arrests in this area. The police were moving in en masse, until the four-star commander came out.
RYAN DEVEREAUX: Yes, that’s correct. Joseph Esposito, as I understand it, the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the NYPD, came in, and he called the officers back from the line. They took about three steps back. And—
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, this was an amazing moment—
RYAN DEVEREAUX: It was an incredible moment.
AMY GOODMAN: —because it looked like he was coming forward to tell the police to move forward, and instead, he told the police to back off, to many of the police’s shock. You saw them looking at each other: “You’re telling us to move back?” And he said, “Yes, move back.”
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