NEW YORK — A counterprotester demonstrating against a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” event Saturday lighted and threw a device containing nuts, bolts and screws at the protesting crowd after someone from that group used pepper spray on the counterprotesters, police said.
Police are investigating the incident that started late Saturday morning when someone from the anti-Islam protest associated with far-right activist and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang shot pepper spray into a counterprotesting group near the mayoral residence Gracie Mansion, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Tensions continued to heighten, she said, when one of the counterprotesters lighted and threw a device she described as smaller than a football into the protesting crowd of about 20 people.
The device struck a barrier and extinguished itself “a few feet from police officers,” she said. The same person then ran, and another person gave a him a second device, which they then dropped. The devices were wrapped in black tape with nuts, bolts and screws, as well as a fuse. She said it was unclear whether the devices were functioning explosives or hoaxes.
Three people were arrested, and an investigation is underway, Tisch said.
Tisch at a news conference didn’t report any injuries and said she believed Mayor Zohran Mamdani was not at Gracie Mansion at the time.
She said about 20 people showed up to Saturday’s protest connected to Lang, and the counterprotest had about 125 people at its peak.
Lang was charged with assaulting a police officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before receiving a pardon as part of President Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants last year. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.
Last month, Lang staged an anti-Islam protest in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown there.
Hundreds of far-right anti-Islam marched through Manchester on Saturday, demanding mass deportations of migrants and Muslims from the UK. Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler spoke to protesters and counter-protesters at the rally.
Hundreds of Britain First protesters faced larger antifascist crowds in a tense Manchester city centre standoff.
Manchester, United Kingdom – Chants of “send them back” echoed through a damp underpass as hundreds of far-right anti-Islam protesters prepared to march through the streets.
Union Jacks fluttered in the wind as protesters – some visibly under the influence of alcohol – chanted a series of anti-immigration slogans and derisive comments about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
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In response to the demonstration organised by Britain First, a far-right political party that calls for mass deportation and the removal of migrants and Muslims from the UK, a counterprotest was also planned for midday on Saturday.
It formed a much larger crowd made up of antifascist protesters who gathered a few streets away, carrying antiracist banners and waving an array of flags, including the Palestinian flag.
Ruby, 20, a student from South London, took a five-hour coach ride to show her support for the counterprotest and told Al Jazeera that attending was a “no-brainer”. She asked that her surname not be published, fearing repercussions.
Three counter-protesters face the oncoming Britain First demonstrators [Nils Adler/Al Jazeera]
‘A master race’
Ruby said her grandparents, originally from Montserrat, were part of the Windrush generation – immigrants invited to the UK between 1948 and 1971 from Caribbean countries – and, despite having given so much to their adopted country, are now feeling increasingly unwelcome.
She said her grandparents had told her they were witnessing a return to the levels of racism they experienced when they came to the country in the 1950s.
It was a sentiment echoed by Llowelyn, 16, a counter-protester from Wales who said her father, who is British Guyanese, has received more verbal abuse based on his race in the past few years than at any other point.
The tension was palpable before the two marches were due to begin, with far-right agitators livestreaming to their followers as they entered the area assigned to the counterprotest.
John – a stocky, tenacious counter-protester from Wales – confronted them with arms outstretched as police officers looked on.
“They come here to cause a ruckus and make money of it online, but I come here to protect the left. These guys [far-right agitators] try and intimidate … minorities because they think they are a master race”, he told Al Jazeera.
As the Britain First march began, flanked by police and led by Paul Golding, a portly, combative far-right activist who has previously been imprisoned for religiously aggravated harassment, the celebratory mood quickly turned aggressive as they came across counter-protesters in the city centre.
“Leftie scum,” screamed one member of the Britain First crowd as they harassed three young people who staged a sit-down, forcing riot police to encircle and pull them to safety.
Far-right agitators turn up at a counterprotest [Nils Adler/Al Jazeera]
‘Divisive, racist positions’
The two marches finally met in an expletive-ridden crushendo as police struggled to hold ranks.
Britain First protesters prodded counter-protesters with flag poles, and some slipped through the porous police lines as they shouted anti immigration and anti-Palestine slogans.
A number of counterprotesters and bystanders expressed frustration that the police allowed the march to go ahead.
“We, as Jews and internationalists, are having to confront Britain First, the fascists who are organising on the streets, who have been permitted to market their divisive, racist, dictatorial positions on our streets,” Pia Feig, of Jewish Action for Palestine, told Al Jazeera.
Audrey, a teacher and counterprotester who was pushed away by police after being shoved by a Britain First protester, said the police always “protected” the far-right groups.
A police officer told Al Jazeera that the day required extensive planning and was a particularly difficult operation, as the two groups kept changing their planned route.
He said on condition of anonymity that handling the two conflicting protests, a rally in support of Ukraine, and managing crowds at large football fixtures held this weekend had stretched the local police force thin.
