Video Footage Shows Times Square And Historic Macy’s Store After Being Taken Over By Looters
New video footage has emerged showing some New York City sites after looters took over Monday night and into Tuesday morning. Vandals smashed storefronts throughout Manhattan, taking valuables and running rampant through typically secure areas in the business districts.
Peaceful protests throughout the city earlier in the day were marked with frustration and heartfelt pleas by those commemorating the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who died while in police custody. However, the peaceful nature of protests took a dark turn later in the day as New York fell prey to the same kind of destruction that has marked other cities across the nation.
A viral video of the historic Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street in Manhattan showed looters flooding in the doors after they were breached. What appeared to be hundreds of vandals had free ingress and egress at the iconic store for some time until the sound of a “small unexplained explosion” seemed to push them back, according to The New York Post.
Pretty crazy footage of @Macys in Herald Square being looted right now. https://t.co/ag8tQ1bUcW
— Fred (@WaywardWinifred) June 2, 2020
The Daily Beast’s Rachel Olding posted another clip showing demonstrators after law enforcement arrived on the scene.
Cops running into Macy's at Herald Square as it was being looted. Hundreds of looters and rioters here with absolutely no concerns about cops being here pic.twitter.com/NItOU7POiL
— Rachel Olding (@rachelolding) June 2, 2020
According to the report in The New York Post, police were seen escorting individuals out of the store in handcuffs, several of whom were presumed to have been arrested.
Macy’s boarded up its store on Sunday at a time when they had planned to finally reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were eased.
“We recognize that Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores are located in the heart of our communities and can be a target to activity surrounding this stressful situation,” the company told The Post in a previous statement about their scheduled reopen.
A second video showed some of the results of looting in Time Square as protesters made their way through any storefronts with valuables, taking whatever they could carry. The downtown area was littered with garbage and debris, and even overturned tables, as looters left in a hurry with their spoils.
Protests, which have been raging for days, were met with added resistance as an 11 p.m. curfew was instituted on Monday in an attempt to curtail the destruction. Looters seemed largely unconcerned with the curfew despite hopes it would slow down individuals taking advantage of the protest mayhem.
“We can’t let violence undermine the message of this moment,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement, according to Fox News.
The publication quoted Gov. Andrew Cuomo accusing some of trying “to distract and discredit” the protests.
“Tonight, to protect against violence and property damage, the governor and I have decided to implement a citywide curfew,” de Blasio said.
Demonstrations have continued over a week after Floyd’s death, spurred on by the news that the recently deceased’s second autopsy confirmed his cause of death as “asphyxiation due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain,” as The Inquisitr previously reported.
