Protests in N.Y.C.: Latest Updates

Weather: Expect a stormy afternoon, with thunder, rain and wind gusts. High in the mid-80s.

Alternate-side parking: Suspended through Sunday.

With an earlier curfew, protesters lingered but looting diminished.

For a second straight night, a citywide curfew took effect in New York on Tuesday, this time at 8 p.m., as officials tried again to curb the violent clashes, looting and other destructive acts that have marred the mostly peaceful protests that have filled the streets for nearly a week.

As happened on Monday, when much of the worst damage was done before an 11 p.m. curfew took effect, groups of people — many, if not most, of whom had come out to rally against police brutality and systemic racism — lingered outside when the cutoff came.

Hundreds of people continued to walk peacefully in large groups through Brooklyn and Manhattan, chanting protest slogans in demonstrations touched off by the death last week of George Floyd, a black man, while in custody of the Minneapolis police.

The largest crowd tried to cross the Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn but was turned back peacefully after a lengthy standoff with the police.

Overall, there appeared to be fewer violent confrontations between officers and protesters than there had been in recent days, and there also appeared be fewer acts of looting than in the two previous nights.

[Get the latest news and updates on the protests in the New York region.]

In the Bronx, teenagers and the police tested each other.

As the 8 p.m. curfew neared on Tuesday, dozens of police officers began to gather along 149th Street near Third Avenue, a South Bronx commercial hub that had largely escaped looting.

As the number of officers swelled, so did groups of teenagers. Some carried backpacks that appeared to be mostly empty. One had a wooden baseball bat; another a broken-off dowel. Everyone seemed to be waiting. The officers were clutching batons.

A woman got off a bus nearby, surveyed the tense scene and shouted, “I can’t breathe!” twice. Nobody joined in the chant, and she walked away.

It was quiet for a moment as curfew arrived.

Soon afterward, the police began to shout, “Go home!” at the teenagers and chased a few of them off, banging the metal roll gates of closed shops with their batons for effect.

Then they began to make arrests.

[New York City’s first curfew in 75 years: ‘Nobody has seen anything like this.’]

Here’s what you need to know about the curfew.

City officials have issued guidance saying that “essential workers” are among those excepted from the shutdown order, which is in effect from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night through Sunday, meaning the final curfew ends at 5 a.m. on Monday morning.

Those exempt from the curfew include:

• Health care workers

• Law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians

• Those working at businesses deemed essential during the coronavirus pandemic, including grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies

• People seeking medical treatment or obtaining medical supplies

• Homeless people living unsheltered on the street, and homeless outreach workers

• Members of the news media

Officials also clarified on Tuesday that the following activities are permitted during the curfew:

More on the protests:

‘It Was a Disgrace’: De Blasio and Police Chief Faulted Over Looting

Macy’s Damage Is Limited, but Looting Deals a Symbolic Blow

And finally: Essential Spike Lee viewing

The Times’s A.O. Scott writes:

The first time I saw Spike Lee was in the trailer for “She’s Gotta Have It,” hawking tube socks on a street corner to buy “butter for my whole wheat bread.” That was 1986. Since then, I’ve seen all of his movies as soon as they opened, a streak that will continue with his new joint, “Da 5 Bloods.”

Lee’s work can be uneven, but it’s never uninteresting.

His candid, funny, occasionally infuriating statements in interviews and on social media are evidence of his political passion and also his playfulness, qualities that inform the movies too. Many of them confront American racism, past and present, with an unsparing eye for its cruelties and contradictions. The best of them are also peerless works of cinematic art.

If you’re looking for a way into an imposing and eclectic body of work, here are some recommendations for essential Spike Lee viewing experiences.

“Do the Right Thing”: In 30 years, this study of simmering racial tension on a few Bed-Stuy blocks has gone from controversial to classic. It is less incendiary than profoundly sad. It is also persistently, agonizingly topical.

“Malcolm X”: It changes its visual palette and mood to match each decade of the story. It is a comedy, a love story, an almost-musical and a whodunit, held together by Denzel Washington’s somber, witty, altogether electrifying performance.

“The Original Kings of Comedy”: Capturing the energy and surprises of live performances is never as easy as it looks. What makes this an authentic Spike Lee joint is its generosity, the love it communicates for the kings as they hold court.

“Crooklyn”: Lee grew up in a pre-gentrified Brooklyn, the oldest child of a musician and an educator. Collaborating with his sister, Joie, and his brother Cinqué, he recreated the moods of childhood in this bittersweet meditation on family and neighborhood life.

It’s Wednesday — you’re halfway there.

Metropolitan Diary: Steel drum sound

Dear Diary:

It happened two days before Christmas about 15 years ago.

I had just been shopping at Bloomingdale’s for a couple of presents that I needed to complete my shopping list.

While I waited for an N train to take me back to the East Village, I heard the sound of a beautiful Caribbean melody being played on steel drums.

Moving toward the music to get a closer look at who was playing, I saw a woman in a fur coat who was carrying several Bloomingdale’s shopping bags walk toward the steel drum player too.

The woman put down her bags and, with a big smile on her face, she started to dance.

She continued dancing for about 30 seconds until a train came into the station. Then she pulled a bill from her purse, dropped it in the musician’s tip box, said thank you, picked up her bags and boarded the train.

The smile was still on her face.

— Fabian Molina

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