Police arrested well over 1,000 people protesting the Republican National Convention from Thurs. Aug. 26 through Tues. Aug. 31. On Thursday, police arrested 22 demonstrators: five members of No Police State were arrested at Union Sq. for using public address bullhorns without permits; there were 10 other arrests at Union Sq. later; 11 members of Act Up demonstrating naked and nearly naked in front of Madison Sq. Garden were arrested and four members of Operation Sibyl were arrested for rappelling down the front of the Plaza Hotel at Fifth Ave. and Central Park S. and draping the facade with a 30-ft.-tall anti-Bush banner.
The Operation Sibyl members included Terra Lawson-Remer, 25, of 310 E. 23rd St., a New York University graduate student, arrested after her rappelling gear got stuck; Rebecca Johnson, 25 of Oakland, Cal., and Pablo Cesar Makit, 28, a Dallas architect, arrested on the Plaza roof; and David Murphy 31, of Brooklyn, an instructor in the Trapeze School in the Hudson River Park at Desbrosses St., arrested after he rappelled from the roof to the ground. Evan Thies, Operation Sibyl’s media spokesperson and a staff member of City Councilmember David Yassky, was arrested later for facilitating a crime. A police officer involved in the Plaza arrests sustained cuts that required 36 stitches when he stepped through a skylight; as a result, all four were charged with assault in addition to reckless endangerment.
Friday night, over 200 bikers were arrested for blocking traffic during the anti-R.N.C. bike bloc ride. At Sunday’s United for Peace and Justice march there were over 240 arrests, including members of a group called Black Bloc, who set a papier-mache dragon on fire and then resisted arrest.
There were two more arrests at Union Sq. on Sunday, including, Geoff Blank, a member of the No Police State Coalition, who again was using an electric megaphone without a permit.
As part of the A 31 Action Coalition direct-action protests, more arrests occurred Tuesday, including 500 in Midtown and 200 at ground zero. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he would not let the protesters “have the run of the city.”
Assault and robbery
An indictment last week charged Alvin Rivera, 19, of 552 W. 184th St., with being one of five suspects in the June 3 assault and robbery of two men on W. 21st St. just west of Sixth Ave., according to the office of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.
The victims, 22 and 24, were going to their car parked at the curb when five suspects ambushed them at 2:10 a.m. and threw them to the ground, police said. Rivera is charged with punching the older victim in the face, putting his foot on his throat, threatening to kill him and forcing him to hand over his wallet with $250 and a driver’s license.
Rivera is also charged with punching the younger victim in the back of the neck and the chest and trying to grab his wallet while the accomplices held him, but all five suspects then fled in different directions.
The two victims followed Rivera and phoned 911 for police who arrested Rivera on 23rd St. at Seventh Ave. The wallet was recovered in a building that Rivera had entered during his flight, according to police. The other suspects were not apprehended. Rivera is to be arraigned on Sept. 10.
Robbery suspect
Isaac Eubanks, 34, a resident of the Allerton Hotel. 302 W. 22nd St. was indicted Aug. 25 in connection with a July 31 robbery on W. 20th St. two blocks from his home, according to the office of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.
The victim, 34, a Queens resident, was entering an apartment building at 330 W. 20th St. around midnight when the defendant, holding what the victim thought was a gun, grabbed him from behind, demanded the knapsack he was carrying and threatened to shoot him, according to the indictment.
Eubanks then punched the victim and grabbed his knapsack, ripping the victim’s shirt and causing him to fall down a flight of stairs, the indictment says. Eubanks then fled up Eight Ave. to the Allerton where the hotel security phoned 911. Police arrested the suspect and found the victim’s knapsack with his wallet, identification and a debit card.
Eubanks is to be arraigned Sept. 9.
