NEW YORK CITY – Last night the NYPD deployed a massive buffer zone in response to a planned protest outside a West Bank land-sale event in Manhattan. In response, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement from Executive Director Donna Lieberman:
“The NYPD’s no-speech zone last night was unprecedented, unreasonable, and outrageous, sprawling six blocks from the subject of the demonstration and across multiple avenues, streets, and even into subway stations. A six block no-speech zone is unheard of, and hasn’t even been used for the United Nations, the President, or the Republican National Convention.
“The NYPD’s imposition of an enormous frozen zone doesn’t just muzzle New Yorkers’ voices and interfere with getting their message out, it also escalates tensions. Last night the NYPD deployed its SRG unit which, to no one’s surprise, ramped up the conflict. Officers used pepper spray indiscriminately against demonstrators. It’s just the latest moment in a long history showing we need to get the SRG out of protest policing by passing the CURB Act.
“The NYPD’s response also shows why advocates have been sounding the alarm about the so-called buffer zones bills passed by the City Council for protest near religious and educational facilities. These bills have told New Yorkers to fear demonstrators – exactly the wrong message amid the outrages of the second Trump term and the era of No Kings and Hands Off marches – and have invited the NYPD to place excessive burdens on protest to silence what they perceive to be the wrong message.
“When politicians use freedom of religion as a pretext to impose severe restrictions on speech, they undermine all New Yorkers’ rights. The subject of last night’s protests was not a religious service but a private, politically-charged real estate event held at a synagogue.
“With Albany now considering legislation that could ban protests across large swaths of our cities, last night should make clear to state lawmakers that no-speech zones are dangerous to our rights, to the safety of New Yorkers who care enough to speak out, and to our democracy.”
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