Over 700 Protesters Arrested in Minneapolis, NYC During "Count Every Vote" Demonstrations

Protesters in New York City demand election officials "Count Every Vote" during the still undecided 2020 presidential election on November 4, 2020. (Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Over 700 Protesters Arrested in Minneapolis, NYC During "Count Every Vote" Demonstrations

Protesters blocked an interstate highway in Minneapolis and took to the streets of Manhattan, where some were violently arrested by NYPD officers. 

Hundreds of people were arrested in Minneapolis and New York City Wednesday night at protests against President Donald Trump's attempts to steal the ongoing 2020 presidential election, part of the nationwide "Count Every Vote" campaign.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said Thursday that state troopers and Minneapolis police arrested 646 people beginning after 7:45 pm after they flooded Interstate 94, where, according to the Star-Tribune, they marched against the president's threats to contest the results of the undecided election, as well against police brutality and endless U.S. wars, and for racial justice, climate action, and other progressive causes.

"We have a racist in office. Which side are you on?" Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and racial justice activist, asked the crowd before it made its way onto the freeway. "Do you stand on the side of oppression or the side of justice? I'm tired of relatives of people killed by police coming to these rallies."

The protest--which was organized by the Twin Cities for Justice 4 Jamar Coalition in coordination with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Regression--began in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood before making its way through downtown, where it merged with another demonstration endorsed by a disparate coalition of around 30 organizations, including supporters of Black Lives Matter.

State and local law enforcement, including officers on horseback, "kettled"--or surrounded and systematically arrested--the demonstrators for "suspicion of tresspassing and unlawful assembly," according to the Star-Tribune, which reported a "festive" atmosphere among the detained demonstrators as they awaited processing. No injuries or police brutality were reported.

At about the same time as the arrests began in Minneapolis, police in New York City moved against a group of hundreds of protesters who had convened earlier for a demonstration demanding elections officials "Count Every Vote."

The protesters gathered outside the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan before marching to Washington Square Park. At around 8:30 pm New York Police Department officers dressed in riot gear began kettling and arresting scores of protesters in the West Village. The New York Timesreports at least 58 people were apprehended.

A second confrontation between police and protesters occurred around 9:30 pm near Union Square Park after NYPD officers on bicycles attempted to break up a demonstration. Witnesses said officers forcefully arrested several protesters.

One New York protester has received international attention after she resisted being trapped against a wall during a kettling blitz by calling an NYPD officer a "fascist" and spitting in his face. Devina Singh of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania was violently arrested and charged with obstruction of governmental administration and harrassment.

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