Report: Black Lives Matter Riot In Manhattan Causes Estimated $100,000 In Damages

Approximately 150 Black Lives Matter rioters smashed and vandalized several businesses and banks in Lower Manhattan on Friday night, costing residents and business owners tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

Police sources told the New York Post that the total cost of damages from one night of rioting in Manhattan caused an estimated $100,000 in damages. The riot grew out of a Black Lives Matter protest over the death of Daniel Prude.

The New York City Police Department arrested eight people in connection with the destruction, which hit at least eight businesses and banks in Manhattan. One person arrested was from Iowa, while another traveled from Portland, Oregon. All of the suspects were charged with rioting and some were hit with additional charges of weapons and burglary tools possession.

Renewed civil unrest has rocked parts of New York since a video of Prude’s arrest in March was released on Wednesday. On March 23, two people, including Prude’s brother, called the police saying that Prude was behaving erratically and suffering from mental health issues. Prude had been running a neighborhood in Rochester, New York, naked and screaming at people that he had COVID-19.

The video released on Wednesday shows police cuffing a naked Prude and leaving him on the ground. Prude challenges the surrounding officers and demands a gun.

As The Daily Wire reports:

As cops were physically restraining the man for about two minutes, body camera footage … and media reports suggest the 41-year-old threw up and loss consciousness. He was reportedly resuscitated on the way to the hospital but likely suffered severe brain damage and was pulled from life support about a week later by his family.

Notably, Prude has a mesh-like hood placed over his head, dubbed a “spit hood.” The device is used to protect officers from saliva. Prude was repeatedly spitting and reportedly telling people he had COVID.

The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Prude had died from “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint due to excited delirium due to acute phencyclidine intoxication,” which indicates that Prude may have been high on PCP at the time of his arrest.

Black Lives Matter protesters and rioters have taken to the streets of New York City and Rochester, vandalizing businesses and smashing windows. On Friday night, rioters in Rochester harassed numerous people dining out at restaurants. Several people attempted to break into an apartment building while others set fire to a bus stop.

On Thursday, one man in Rochester voiced his anger to Spectrum News reporter Brianna Hamblin and called for the entire police force to resign, saying, “We want badges, we want Chief of Police badges. We want it because they swept this under the rug.”

“Black lives do matter, okay? We want to see those officers arrested, and if we don’t—we tired. We are tired. We tired of it, man,” he continued. “They act like black people—we want justice all over the world, we want equal pay, we want equal rights, when you go to court, we wanna be treated equal.”