Monday’s Headlines: Canal Street This Time Edition

Streetsblog doesn't cover the international debate over immigration, but when aggressive protest and police response play out in the public realm, we're guessing you'd like to know what happened.

Reporter Talia Jane posted the first video, shortly after 11 a.m. on Saturday, when a few dozen New Yorkers linked arms to prevent federal authorities from driving their vehicles out of the General Services Administration garage on Centre Street for a possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation:

The crowd was not initially violent, but there was certainly tension as federal authorities remained on one side of the garage door and protesters remained (more or less) on the sidewalk side.

The action picks up soon after with reporting by Gwynne Hogan of The City, showing the arrival of the NYPD:

The standoff quickly escalated as federal authorities battled with protesters for control of a plastic barricade — and the NYPD officers pushed back the protesters. When one protester cursed at a cop, the officer appeared afraid and brandished his pepper spray. Protesters started throwing bags of garbage:

Hell Gate picks up the story, with NYPD officers escorting federal immigration authorities out of the garage:

That's when more debris was hurled into the street, and NYPD officers, without much apparent oversight, started unleashing pepper spray (in one case, a cop actually pepper-sprayed a fellow officer, as this video from Hell Gate shows):

In the end, more than a dozen people were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing government operation, Hogan reported in The City.

From our perspective, that's when the story got really interesting. As you might recall, after the federal immigration raid on Canal Street in October, we raised questions about how the NYPD would both protect federal agents' right to carry out lawful orders as well as defend protesters' rights to object to them.

Those questions remain. As The New York Times put it, “The presence of local law enforcement did little to ease tensions.”

Meanwhile, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch is struggling to balance the desires of her current boss without alienating her future one. She was the one who sent Strategic Response Group cops to the chaotic scene to assist the federal authorities. And she was the one who later seemed to have second thoughts about the whole thing.

When Christopher Raia, who runs the FBI’s New York office, and Special Agent Ricky Patel, the head of Homeland Security Investigations in Newark, called Tisch to, as the Post put it, "apologize over the confrontation between cops and protesters," Tisch upbraided her federal counterparts.

"Tisch ... vehemently criticized the actions of the federal agents during a phone call," the Times reported (though amNY had some of this, too). "She told him [Patel] that the raid was 'unacceptable' and that such shows of force had put New Yorkers, federal agents and her officers in harm’s way."

So how is this going to play out? A spokesperson for Mayor-elect Mamdani, the future Tisch boss referenced above, put out a statement, reported by Hell Gate:

"The Mayor-elect has made it clear — including to the president — that these raids are cruel and inhumane, and fail to advance genuine public safety. ... The mayor-elect remains steadfast in his commitment to protecting the rights and dignity of every single New Yorker, upholding our sanctuary laws, and de-escalation rather than use of unnecessary force."

And the issue isn't going away: Gothamist reported that anti-ICE protesters will continue.

In other news:

• Speaking of Commissioner Tisch, her incoming boss is no fan of NYPD surveillance. What could possibly go wrong? (NY Times)
• And speaking said incoming boss, "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz offered the mayor-elect a nice list of transportation improvements and changes he should make in his first 100 days (though we could have lived without the Spiro Agnew reference). (NYDN)
• The Times gave the full interactive video treatment to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway's crumbling triple-cantilever, and we learned a few things: 1. Mayor Adams did nothing and 2. the Times has no interest in even dreaming of a future without that highway sluicing cars and trucks through our city.
• New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz bemoaned the loss of outdoor dining for the season. (Instagram)
• Randy Cohen interviewed Ydanis Rodriguez for the "Person Place Thing" podcast.
• Don't forget Tuesday's runoff election for Jersey City mayor, where, as we've reported, Jim McGreevey is running against street safety. (Gothamist)
• From the assignment desk: Mayor-elect Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders will join striking Starbucks workers in Park Slope today at 3 p.m.
• The Post went through Zohran Mamdani's 400 transition team advisers — and decided to target Ben Furnas of Transportation Alternatives. Really? Is Ben Furnas really a worthy target for the full tabloid hysterics?
• And, finally, the Streetsblog inbox received so much hate mail over the weekend that I assumed it was because we had printed an error or renounced the fight for livable, safe streets. But, no, it was just the New York Times deciding again to use its oversized megaphone to complain about e-bikes. If ever there was a "now do cars" story, it was this one. First, the Paper of Record didn't really care to distinguish between legal e-bikes and the illegal ones (which we hate, too!). Nor did the Gray Lady offer much support for street redesigns, lower speeds, education and, yes, getting rid of unsafe vehicles (including cars!), which are pillars of the "Safe Systems" approach. On the plus side, the Times quoted Ben Furnas (yes, the same guy the Post hates) putting the whole issue in perspective: The focus, he told the paper, should be “on the vehicles that are killing and maiming the most people: heavy cars and trucks” and that infrastructure, like extra-wide bike lanes, should be created so that streets are “safe places for everyone.”