NY protester tries to strangle cop with chain, armed Trump supporters and Alex Jones gather near Arizona center
Police in Manhattan, New York, conducted a series of "violent arrests" on Thursday, November 5, as demonstrators took to Greenwich Village to protest against President Donald Trump and New York City police. Multiple videos taken during the We Choose Freedom rally showed demonstrators taking to the streets to demand either to count every vote or to stop counting. A New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesperson said that at least 10 people were arrested during demonstrations in lower Manhattan, including one person who attempted to strangle a cop with a chain, the Daily Mail reported.
An NYPD officer also arrested a drag queen as clashes erupted in the West Village with protesters marching from outside the LGBTQ landmark Stonewall Inn, carrying Black Lives Matter flags and rainbow flags. Shortly after, the police department took to Twitter to claim that one protester had attempted to strangle an officer with a chain near Broadway and Bond Street. NYPD News on Twitter wrote: "The suspect was apprehended & will be charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon & attempted strangulation."
Footage from the scene reportedly showed a group of police officers pouncing on a demonstrator to arrest them in the street, while in another instance a woman was seen being detained as she shouted for her shoes, which appeared to have fallen. Demonstrators, as they marched down Lafayette in the city, shouted: "No homophobia! No transphobia!"
Tonight, while performing their duties near Bond St & Broadway in Manhattan, an officer was pushed to the ground & had this chain pressed against his throat. The suspect was apprehended & will be charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon & attempted strangulation. pic.twitter.com/QuWAosMAAP
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) November 6, 2020
Trump supporters in Arizona gathered outside Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center to demand that votes continue being counted in the area. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones reportedly also joined the rally and spoke on the megaphone, saying: "Resistance is victory! I salute you!" He later led protesters out into the street where they chanted "USA! USA!" Trump supporters reportedly asked for the votes to be counted despite the president's call to stop counting across the nation after AP and Fox prematurely called the state for Biden despite all votes not being tallied there. Trump has narrowed Biden's lead in Arizona, which holds 11 crucial electoral college votes. The Trump supporters also included a small group of Second Amendment demonstrators who came armed to the rally.
Biden, on Friday, November 6, took a lead against Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania as vote counting continued in other critical swing states of Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina. Biden, as of early Friday, clinched 49.5 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania compared to Trump's 49.4 percent, according to the Associated Press' tracker. In Georgia, the Democrat took a slim lead of over 1,000 votes against Trump. A win from Pennsylvania could make the Democrat the winner of the 2020 presidential elections.
The former vice president eclipsing Trump in his birth state of Pennsylvania is considered symbolic in the Democrat's political career that has spanned nearly five decades. Biden, according to the latest batch of tabulated vote counts released on November 6 morning, has a lead of 9,752 votes in the Keystone State. The former vice president, during the course of the 2020 Democratic primary, had consistently insisted that he was the only contender in the party who could sway blue-collar voters who abandoned the party in 2016 to support Trump. The Democrat had also vowed to rebuild the Democrats' "blue wall" in the Midwest that was demolished by Trump during the 2016 elections. According to CNN's projections, Biden has succeeded in his goal by clinching victories in Michigan and Wisconsin and is fast closing in on Pennsylvania.