NYPD chief who ‘took a knee’ with protesters among several officers seriously injured in brutal attack

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New York City’s Chief of Police and several other officers were injured in a violent assault by protesters during an attempted arrest.

NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan reportedly suffered a broken finger and three other officers sustained serious injuries during a clash with protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge Wednesday, according to a social media post from the department.

“This is not peaceful protest, this will not be tolerated,” the NYPD said on its verified Twitter page along with a video of the incident.

Anti-police activists reportedly disrupted a peaceful march along the Brooklyn Bridge and the assault on the officers occurred as they were trying to make an arrest. Surveillance video footage of the area showed how a protester along a pedestrian walkway above the police swung some type of long object, which appeared to be a wooden cane, at the police below.

In addition to Monahan’s injury, one NYPD sergeant needed staples to treat a laceration to the head while another sustained an orbital fracture to one of his eyes. A lieutenant suffered from a laceration to his head as well, a law enforcement official told CNN.

The NYPD’s Twitter account shared photos and video of the injuries sustained by the officers.

Though more than three dozen activists were arrested Wednesday, police are still looking for the man seen in the video wielding the stick. Video was posted showing him at the scene as he made his getaway on foot, still holding the cane.

The New York Post reported Wednesday that surveillance video also showed “protesters receiving a small shipment of bats” ahead of the violent incident that broke out.

“Three of our officers were brutally attacked by protesters today,” New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted. “These are the conditions your officers have to operate in every day while they continue to protect your neighborhoods. Such assaults are ALWAYS unacceptable, and should outrage us all.”

The violent protesters “jumped off the walk onto the roadway” on Wednesday, according to activist Tony Herbert who had reportedly organized the peaceful march across the bridge which had included members of the Sergeants Benevolent Association.

“They said they did it peacefully. How do you do it peacefully when you have somebody swinging a cane?” Herbert said, according to the New York Post.

Herbert had joined other prominent members of New York City’s black community earlier this week to demand that city leaders reassemble the plainclothes anti-crime police unit that was disbanded last month. Herbert called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to “take your handcuffs off of the police,” as shootings spike in the city.

Monahan gained attention last month when he and several NYPD officials took a knee with demonstrators in the city. He had spoken to 1010 WINS radio this week about the correlation between the crime spike and the removal of the plainclothes officers.

“The disbanding of anti-crime obviously has a huge effect. Those are our best cops out on the street, grabbing guns. So, there’s a feeling that it’s safe to carry a gun on the street. So, we are looking for ways to change that mentality out on the street,” the Chief said.

Meanwhile, de Blasio, who refuses to acknowledge there is a connection between the recent surge in gun violence and the break-up of the unit, also sparked fury Wednesday when he did not address the violent assault on police during the Brooklyn Bridge march.

As the city has been rocked with a surge in shootings following weeks of unrest and protests, the Democrat mayor, who has called to defund the NYPD while helping to paint a “Black Lives Matter” mural in the street in front of Trump Tower, has called the shootings “heartbreaking” but has offered no real solutions.

On Wednesday, de Blasio signed into law a sweeping City Council police reform bill which includes a ban on police chokeholds.

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