BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Two police officers were injured and two people arrested during a skirmish outside the city’s migrant re-intake center in the East Village on Saturday around 8:20 a.m.
Due to the city’s new 30-day cap on homeless shelter stays, migrants are lining up in large numbers outside the former St. Brigid Elementary School, at 185 E. Seventh Street, which is the only place in the city they can reapply for temporary spots in shelters.
The New York Post reported there was a crowd of around 400 people in line Saturday morning. Someone allegedly tried to cut into the queue and also spilled coffee on some others, with someone then taking a slug at the cutter, sparking the ruckus. The Post said cops told people to stand back, shoving some of them away to try to defuse the situation.
A police spokesperson said two officers received “moderate injuries” to their knees and faces during the scuffle and were removed to the hospital for treatment.
Angel Guttierrezmedal, 24, whose most recent address was a homeless facility on Wards Island, was charged with assaulting a police officer (allegedly punching an officer in the face), resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration and disorderly conduct.
Ronald Salazar-Medina, 38, whose most recent address is listed as Lehigh Acres, Florida, was charged with assault (punching someone), resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct.
Tompkins Square and the East Village had a housing and squatting activist legacy but now the former housing activists, Tompkins Square riot anniversary concert promoters and bands, squatters, former Food Not Bombs workers, others who call themselves Anarchist book readers, MORUS and La Plaza Cultural event promoters and THE CATHOLIC WORKER and ST. BRIGID’S congregation could have sent a humanitarian and old-school TSP activists’ message to the country, but CHOSE NOT TO and did nothing [not even post about this on social media].