NEW YORK (AP) — Skirmishes broke out between supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump as a Jews For Trump convoy of hundreds of cars draped with American flags and Trump 2020 banners rolled slowly through Manhattan and Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon.
The caravan traveled from Coney Island to the Trump Tower in Manhattan before heading to a rally in a Brooklyn park. Videos shared on Twitter showed several protesters pelting the vehicles with eggs or stones, snatching flags and shouting insults.
In one video showing physical fights between several people, police officers detain an unidentified man and protesters chant “let him go.” Another video showed a small group of people throwing objects from a Brooklyn highway overpass at vehicles bedecked with Trump flags.
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani briefly greeted supporters from the passenger seat of a car driving near Trump Tower during the parade, videos show.
New York City police said seven people were taken into custody in connection with physical confrontations in Times Square. Charges were pending Sunday night.
According to the Jews For Trump website, Sunday’s rally was intended to show solidarity with “the beleaguered Red Zone community,” a reference to the coronavirus hot spots designated by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as areas where schools and nonessential businesses must close to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The rally follows weeks of tensions in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods over the coronavirus restrictions. Heshy Tischler, a City Council candidate and leader of Brooklyn protests against the restrictions, promoted Sunday’s car parade on Twitter.
Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to the Trump campaign and co-chair of Jewish Voices for Trump, organized Sunday’s rally in Brooklyn’s Marine Park at the end of the car parade.
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