Silent march turns chaotic as police try to divide the crowd

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The silent march against stop-and-frisk turned violent and chaotic shortly after 5:00 pm after being confronted by New York police.

It appears that the trouble began as the tail end of the march, which has been estimated as at least 50,000 people, reached the destination point of Fifth Avenue and 78th Street. OccupiedStories tweeted at 5:15, “End of ‪#SilentMarchNYC‬ rowdy and loud. Seems like people are continuing to march down 5th Ave. Intensity level just shot through the roof.”

According to the “Newyorkist” Twitter account, it appears that police then began to move in and the crowd started chanting “No justice, no peace” and then “Whose streets, our streets.”

Police tried to kettle the march with netting and then split the crowd, pushing some down Fifth Avenue and others onto a side street. They then began wielding batons and Newyorkist tweeted, “Crowd control meaures turning super agressive and dangerous. Crowd tremendously agitated.”

Alternet’s Kristen Gwynne described/a> a violent scuffle with the police, followed by multiple arrests.

According to journalist Ryan Devereaux, one young woman who was arrested “was dragged away with her breast exposed, people were outraged.”

By just before 6:00 pm, however, things seemed to be calming down, and Gwynne tweeted, “Dispersal order from nypd ‘the march is over’”

At that point, the march does appear to have dispersed peacefully.

Photo of Stop and Frisk protest march via yfrog