May 30, 2020 | 8:41pm | Updated May 30, 2020 | 8:43pm
The woman who suffered a concussion after being pushed by an NYPD cop Friday night — in protest violence captured on now-viral video — is urging New York protesters to “be careful” this weekend.
“I beg everyone who is going back out tonight to protest to be careful. These police want to make an example out of us. They want to prove that they can hurt us and get away with it. Prove them wrong,” tweeted Dounya Zayer, who was filmed being tossed like a ragdoll by a cop while protesting in Brooklyn.
Zayer was among thousands who took to the streets in Brooklyn and Manhattan during tense and sometimes violent demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, the black man who was killed in Minneapolis after a cop knelt on his neck during Floyd’s arrest.
The NYPD is investigating the incident involving Zayer — as is state Attorney General Letitia James as part of a broader review ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called clashes with the police Friday night “disturbing.”
Zayer said the officer called her a “stupid b—h” before throwing her to the ground. Zayer said she smashed her head on the pavement and suffered a concussion and a seizure.
“Them acting the way they acted [Thursday] isn’t helping the cause. It isn’t proving to us that they care about us,” she said in a video she tweeted from her hospital bed.
“I wasn’t aggressive towards the police officer — and even if I was, he should have had the self-restraint to not hurt the people he was supposed to be protecting,” she added. “That’s the point of being an officer.”
“We are all people,” she added.
More protesters have flooded Manhattan and Brooklyn streets again Saturday. In Brooklyn, police flew a helicopter low over Bedford Avenue in Flatbush in an apparent attempt to quell tense afternoon protesters there.
Mace was deployed on demonstrators who did not move out of officers’ way.
