New York City’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, or rather a cosplayer, joined a Black Lives Matter protest on June 2 in a moment of solidarity.
A video of the event saw someone dressed like Spidey sitting atop a wall of what looks like the Manhattan Bridge arch and telling the NYPD, "When you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us." The line is a reference to the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man film, in which a crowd of New Yorkers defends Spider-Man from the Green Goblin as a show of post-9/11 support. Cosplay Spider-Man then holds up a Black Lives Matter sign for all to see.
After the city’s 8 p.m. curfew went into effect, roughly 1,000 protestors walked across the Bridge from Brooklyn, where they were met with officers in riot gear blocking the entrance to the arch. With the demonstrators being unable to cross, a confrontation between the two sides lasted for over an hour before the protestors turned around and walked back to Brooklyn. There were no arrests.
The Manhattan Bridge protest is one of the hundreds formed across the United States in response to George Floyd’s death as a result of police brutality. The 46-year-old Floyd died from a lack of oxygen when Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on his neck for over eight minutes. Chauvin has been arrested, and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights is currently launching a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.
These demonstrations are part of a larger critique of police institutions, racial profiling and the lack of accountability officers face. Protests are still happening in major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Chicago.
(via WCBS 880)