New York police, protesters clash at Floyd demonstration

Protesters angry over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis returned to the streets of New York for a third straight day, as Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded for calm after a demonstration in Brooklyn the previous night descended into chaos that left people bloodied and vehicles burned.

On Saturday, a large crowd marched through Harlem, chanted outside a police precinct and then blocked traffic on the highway along Manhattan’s East River.

There were demonstrations of several thousand at Union Square and outside Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

Late in the day, protesters in Brooklyn confronted police, who shoved some of the demonstrators and used an irritating chemical spray.

De Blasio expressed solidarity with demonstrators upset over police brutality, but promised an independent review of the Friday night confrontation in which both protesters and police officers engaged in violence.

The mayor said he was upset by videos of the clashes in which “protesters were handled very violently” by police and by reports that a state senator and member of the state Assembly were among the people sprayed with irritating chemicals by officers.