The NYPD again cracked down George Floyd protesters in Manhattan defying the curfew Friday night, while hundreds of demonstrators had a tense but peaceful standoff with police in Brooklyn.

“I didn’t want to see anyone get hurt,” said Randy Williams, one protester who tried to cool down tensions. “We want to communicate with the officers. We want to feel safe in our streets.”

In Brooklyn, the hundreds of protesters faced off with police clad in riot gear in Prospect Heights, just two days after New Yorkers and the NYPD faced off in Cadman Plaza. Officers pushed people back in that face-off.

The face-off in Prospect Heights looked calmer, though. Many demonstrators chose to take a knee, and while there did not appear to be any organizers, Williams and others advised their fellow marchers to go home.
 


The group was stopped from crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, and, instead, made their way along Flatbush Avenue. They joined another throng of marchers at Grand Army Plaza, where they were ordered by police to leave. Some chose to do so, while others stayed put.

The protesters said they were outside for more than just Floyd; they marched for their First Amendment rights, too.

Meanwhile in Manhattan, the NYPD cracked down. About 18 people were seen taken into custody at Park Avenue and 81st Street. They were part of a group of protesters that had marched south from what has become a nightly sit-in outside Grace Mansion.

The NYPD allowed them to march for about 25 minutes after the curfew started, converged on them, ordered them to disperse, and arrested those who stayed.
 


As of 11:15 p.m., the NYPD did not confirm how many people officers arrested for breaking curfew Friday.

A few minutes after 8 p.m., hundreds of demonstrators marched on Broadway from Union Square, denouncing the curfew.

“I’ll use my right to peacefully protest!” they chanted.
 


They had gathered in Union Square for a prayer service before they were on the move. They chanted and carried signs that read “black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe.”

That protest was organized by front-line medical workers who said they wanted to be there by 7 p.m. so they could applaud protesters who took to the streets for the past nine days.

Around 8:05 p.m. in Brooklyn, people marched from the Barclays Center down Flatbush Avenue, ignoring the curfew order while the NYPD followed them from a distance.

Each day this week, police have appeared to give people outside after curfew a grace period before they crack down later in the evening. Nonessential workers are exempt from the curfew, which lasts from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. every day through Sunday.

It’s unclear if the curfew — which a growing number of elected officials, including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, have lambasted — will be extended for next week. New York City is on track to enter Phase One of reopening from coronavirus pandemic shutdowns on Monday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has been under fire for enacting the curfew, as well as his lukewarm support of the protests while defending the NYPD’s actions, sometimes viewed as heavyhanded.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced Friday that two NYPD officers would be suspended without pay for such heavyhanded actions while patrolling the protests. One officer was caught on camera pushing a woman to the ground in Brooklyn on May 29. The second was seen the next day pulling down a protester’s mask and spraying him with pepper spray. Neither officer was identified as of this writing.

The curfew was instituted due to evening looting in the city that followed protests, but there have been few reports of any looting over the past several days. There were no confirmed reports of looting Friday.

Before the curfew went into effect, hundreds gathered outside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights for a prayer service to honor the memory of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other African Americans killed by police.
 


Around 7 p.m., they marched across West 110th Street. They said they planned to return to the cathedral.

Earlier in the day, dozens of protesters were gathered outside the Barclays Center. The group, called Muslims Against Police Brutality, staged a rally in support of Black Lives Matter.

Thursday, members of the same group marched 11 miles from Bay Ridge to the Barclays Center. They prayed while protesters from other groups formed a protective ring around them. Then, they marched back again. Organizers said they wanted want to make sure there was a Muslim presence in the movement, something they said had been largely absent.

In Harlem, around 200 people came together for a vigil to mark what would have been the 27th birthday of Breonna Taylor, a black EMT who was shot and killed in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment in March after police broke in while she slept.

This followed another night of peaceful protests around the city that ended in 270 arrests on Thursday, mostly for curfew violations.

Floyd was killed on May 25. He died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes while Floyd pleaded “I can’t breathe.”