Cops arrested four protesters who tried to block the entrance of the Midtown Apple Store during a Black Friday sale, police said.
A coalition of about 70 protesters, including pro-Palestinian demonstrators, holding signs reading, “Think before you buy” and “Israel is killing children,” and waving Palestinian flags, stopped outside the Apple Store on Fifth Ave. at E. 59th St. across from Central Park, where salespersons were offering Apple gift cards of up to $250 for each purchase as part of a Black Friday promotion.
More than a dozen cops were on hand to quickly handcuff protesters who refused to move from the scene or fought back against the officers.
Four protesters were handcuffed and detained. Charges were not immediately filed, an NYPD spokesman said.
Ali Hassan, who mans a hotdog stand on the corner of Fifth Ave. and E. 59th St., saw two people get arrested about 20 minutes into the protest, which lasted for another 40 minutes after the arrests.
“They arrested two people,” Hassan said. “They shoved the police officer, so they took them away. This was early in the protest.”
Another sidewalk vendor a block south on E. 58th St. who only gave her first name, Diane, said she witnessed three of the four arrests. The protesters “got a little rowdy,” she said. “Anytime I ever see protests coming down the Fifth Ave., everybody’s usually pretty decent. This was the first time I’ve ever seen any arrests.”
“They had drums, almost like a little band. They were playing music,” she said of the scene. “And then something happened. Somebody started pushing. Cops were telling them they weren’t allowed on the property.”
Diane said she saw cops arrest two women and a man. The man, who did not appear injured, “went limp” after police handcuffed him, she said.
“You know how a protester, when they get arrested, they kind of go limp, like a little kid does?” she said. “That same guy went out in an ambulance. He was on the ground for a while.”
The protesters claimed the tech giant benefits from exploitative cobalt mining in the Congo, and also slammed what they called Apple’s ties to ICE and President Trump.
The protesters continued south along Fifth Ave. after the arrests, cops said.
The Black Friday demonstration occurred not far from the Park East Synagogue on E. 67th St., where pro-Palestinian protesters on Nov. 19 held a tumultuous rally at which participants screamed “Intifada!” “Death to the IDF!” and “Resistance! Take another settler out!” as members of Nefesh B’Nefesh — an organization that assists Jewish immigration to Israel from the U.S. and Canada — were holding a program inside.
Pro-Israel advocates and Jewish leaders blasted the protest as antisemitic, and Gov. Hochul called it “a blatant attack on the Jewish community.”
On Saturday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch visited the synagogue and apologized to the congregation, saying that her officers should have set up a frozen zone outside the entrance, which would have pushed the protesters further back.
