NYC mayor defends police response after videos show officers punching pro-Palestinian protesters

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the police department’s response to a pro-Palestinian street demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend, calling video of officers repeatedly punching men laying prone on the ground an “isolated incident.” Adams complained that protesters who marched through Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge section had blocked traffic, spit at officers and climbed on top of a moving city bus. Footage shot by bystanders and independent journalists shows police intercepting a march in the street, shoving participants toward the sidewalk and then grabbing some people in the crowd and dragging them down. Officers can be seen repeatedly punching at least three protesters, in separate incidents, as they lay pinned on the ground.