Several police officers forcibly arrested an anti-Trump demonstrator on Tuesday in a park outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald J. Trump is on trial.
The encounter happened after the demonstrator, Payne Daniel, 70, had chanted into a microphone attached to a speaker hanging from a shoulder strap. Mr. Payne has protested in Collect Pond Park outside the New York County Criminal Courthouse for several days, but on Tuesday, two officers told him the speaker was prohibited.
One chased Mr. Daniel into the northern section of the park, and with another officer, threw Mr. Daniel onto the stone ground and cuffed his hands behind his back.
transcript
“I ain’t gotta go —” [expletive] “He got his rights, though, man. Y’all got to cut that [expletive].” “Yo chill, bro.” “Oh boy [expletive].” [expletive] “Get off of me! Help! Kidnap! Kidnap — help!”
CreditCredit…Nate Schweber/The New York Times
“Help,” Mr. Daniel cried out. “I’m being kidnapped!”
The New York Police Department did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Throughout the trial, the police have told people using bullhorns and speakers that they are not allowed outside the courthouse.
Mr. Daniel chanted outside last week and, after two hours of speaking into the microphone on Monday, said in an interview that his negative opinion of Mr. Trump began more than three decades ago during the trial of the Central Park Five.
The criminal case stemming from the sexual assault of a jogger in Central Park in 1989 gripped the city and the nation. Five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongly convicted, and the verdicts were later overturned.
After the attack, Mr. Trump took out newspaper advertisements calling for New York State to adopt the death penalty.
“Now look who’s on trial,” Mr. Payne said on Monday. “That monster.”
