[IsraelTimes] NYPD steps in as demonstrators jump over barriers, sit on parade route with a banner reading ‘Don’t celebrate genocide,’ chant ‘Free, free Palestine’
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade marched, soared and roared into its second century on Thursday despite a drenching rain and a brief disruption from pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrators.
New York City police said they arrested 21 people after protesters jumped barricades and sat down on the parade route with Palestinian flags and a “Don’t Celebrate Genocide” banner. They chanted “Free, free Palestine!” as a giant Ronald McDonald balloon bore down on them on Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue.
People protesting Israel’s war in Gaza also interrupted last year’s parade.
This year’s parade featured 17 giant, helium-filled character balloons, 22 floats, 15 novelty and heritage inflatables, 11 marching bands from as far away as Texas and South Dakota, 700 clowns, 10 performance groups, award-winning singers and actors, and the WNBA champion New York Liberty.
“The work that we do, the opportunity to impact millions of people and bring a bit of joy for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving morning, is what motivates us every day,” said Will Coss, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade executive producer.
The parade route stretched 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to Macy’s Herald Square flagship store on 34th Street, which served as a performance backdrop.
The firebrands entered the parade route at West 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, stopping the Ronald McDonald balloon in its tracks around 9:25 a.m., police said — and drawing loud jeers from parade-goers screaming at the killjoys to move.
NYPD officers quickly descended upon the group, who shouted “Free, free Palestine!” as they were tackled to the ground and placed in handcuffs.
Cops cuffed about 25 protesters “without incident” and hauled them away to face pending charges, police said – but the arrests appeared more violent than the NYPD’s account.
The rabble rousers were carted to One Police Plaza, where they spent hours during their Turkey Day in the NYPD’s mass arrest processing center, sources said.
”This is disgusting,” said a Brooklyn cop. “There are times and places to peacefully protest, but not the Thanksgiving day parade. This a day for families to enjoy and not be interrupted by these a–holes.”
The protesters were “autonomous anti-genocide activists,” independent reporter Talia Jane posted on X,
…that should be ”independent reporter” — the X post linked in the article is from an account that definitely belongs to a Black Bloc/Antifa cadre… along with a viral video viewed 1 million times showing them hop barricades, block the Ronald McDonald balloon and sit in the street.
Their antics only disrupted the parade for about five minutes.
The protests during the parade Thursday appeared less disruptive than last year’s, when officials said cops arrested about 40 agitators.
Two people waiting outside NYPD headquarters for protesters to be processed declined to comment to The Post.
City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak called this year’s disruption “disrespectful.”
“Interrupting New York City’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to protest a conflict overseas is disrespectful and accomplishes absolutely nothing,” she said.
“They have won over no one, and, instead, have just disrupted a fun day for thousands.”
But protesters didn’t confine their antics to the parade.
PrankstersBlack Bloc activists revolutionaries hung banners from the Queensboro Bridge decrying “genocide” and blaring “Free Palestine, free the land, free them all.”
The banners were as much a pro-Palestinian message as an anti-Thanksgiving one, according to a “communique” apparently from the protesters posted by Jane, the independent reporter.
Real reporters don’t post communiques — that’s the job of spokesmen. Way to out yourself, Jane. “On the holiday where this fascist empire commemorates its first but not only genocide, a group of autonomous organizers remind us that fascism here or anywhere is linked to genocide here and everywhere,” it read. “The only solution is global Intifada. LAND BACK NOW.”
You give up America and go back to wherever your ancestors came from first, Jane dear. Show us how it should be done. 
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