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New York Knicks Win First Championship Since 1973; New York Crowd Getting Unruly After Knicks Victory; New York Police Bring Horses To Try To Control Crowd. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired June 14, 2026 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:35]
BRIAN ABEL, CNN HOST: I'm Brian Abel live in Washington, D.C. This is the CNN Newsroom. Just after 2:00 a.m. Eastern and the New York City streets filled with New York Knicks fans celebrating their first NBA title since 1973. The 53-year-long drought is over.
The Knickerbockers have won the NBA championship once again after staging a second dramatic comeback in back-to-back games defeating the Spurs, 94 to 90, in San Antonio to bring home the franchise's third ever NBA title. The newly crowned champs had trailed for most of the game until breaking through in the final quarter.
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(CHEERING)
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ABEL: And celebrations are in full swing in the city that never sleeps. People are certainly not going to bed where CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is joining us from and the area around the iconic Madison Square Garden. So, Shimon, tell us what you're seeing right now.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: So it's actually escalated. They've attacked -- this is a police car that they attacked. And clearly the windshield is broken. And now we're starting to see -- we moved off the corner because we started seeing the police move in here.
And you could see here that they've completely damaged this car, which has now brought a large police response into this area. And now the police are here. There are a number of people that are inside this bus here. And it looks like this is where the NYPD is heading.
I will also say to you there were fireworks that were going off over here. And that's what brought some of the police officers this direction as well. But for the first time, we're actually seeing some violence. The destruction of that unmarked police car that was attacked. We're also starting to see bottles being thrown at the police. So this is now going to be an escalation. This is certainly an escalation here. As the police moved in here, we started to see more the confrontations between we're seeing bottles being thrown here. A cooler was thrown. Stay, stay right here. Stay here. Stay here.
So we're just going to move back as bottles are being thrown here. And now we're seeing more of the police move in here.
ABEL: And Shimon --
PROKUPECZ: So something -- go ahead, Brian.
ABEL: Were you able to see who started, who attacked that car if anybody was taken into custody by police?
PROKUPECZ: No. What we saw was the police started moving towards this direction, and so we walked with them. And that's when I saw that car, that unmarked police car with the broken windshield. You know, it's not hard to tell that it's a police car. Unmarked, though, clearly someone broke, vandalized that car.
And that's why the police moved in. Someone had realized that that car was vandalized. And then the police moved in to move it to get it out of the area. And that's when we started to see people throw bottles and other things at the police. But for the most part, these officers here, these are the community affairs officers. They're here in the middle of the street just trying to calm things down, trying to get traffic to move.
We're not seeing any confrontation between the police and the people in the street here or any arrests or them -- you know, or the police trying to interact with any of the people out here. So some of the police officers. Yes.
ABEL: If you can --
PROKUPECZ: Go ahead, Brian.
ABEL: -- I do want you to try to explain to us the difference of the community affairs officers versus some of the other officers you are seeing. But also, you know, it was only a few minutes that I was talking to you last before this change. Were you able to feel a change in the air, a change in the area as it moved to what we're seeing now?
PROKUPECZ: Yes. Yes, I was able to feel that. I certainly -- I can see that because for the -- while we've been out here, the police did not head into the crowd. They were standing on the perimeter on 34th Street and 6th Avenue.
[02:05:14]
Oh, and here's another damaged police car. Let me show you here. OK, so again, this is definitely another escalation here. They've completely here damaged this car. They broke the windshield. They broke the side mirrors off. So there is definitely some kind of escalation here, obviously, with the attack of these police cars. And now most of them have made their way into this school bus. And I'm not exactly understanding the point of this, but they are now inside the school bus trying to -- I don't know what they're trying to do, but this is where the attention is at this point.
You see people climbing through the window and they've just completely taken over this school bus. But concerning for the police and when you start to see them attacking their police cars, start attacking police officers and throwing bottles, that is certainly an escalation.
But I will say the police are trying to make an effort to deescalate because right now we're not seeing any of the officers in the middle of the crowd. They have all pushed back. They have pulled out. And the people here in the street, they're just allowing them to stay in the street and do what they're doing.
But the police at this point are not trying to break any of this up, which I think is really interesting. And now this bus is completely --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is crazy.
PROKUPECZ: -- they've completely attacked this school bus.
ABEL: And Shimon, we saw where Mark Morales was earlier them shaking a bus to the point where it almost looked like it was about to tip. So clearly that would be a moment of concern for these officers. And Richard Kolko was telling us about the potential safety risk of that of people getting hurt if that were to happen.
I'm also seeing right in front of the camera here right in front of Effie (ph), that there's been a lot of younger people walking by you. Can you give us a sense of the makeup of the crowd right now and if it's changed at all throughout the evening?
PROKUPECZ: No, it's kind of what we've been seeing, and it's a lot of young -- it's all very young, very young crowd that clearly, you know, they've been out partying all night, celebrating up. This is what -- I've been out here on a number of nights after the Knicks win, and this is the kind of crowd that we're that we're seeing.
And also a lot of social media and streaming. A lot of them. This is what's drawing them, you know, to this area. A lot of them are streaming. A lot of them are posting what they're doing on social media. And all of this kind of activity just excites the crowd even more.
And this is what happens. And, you know, for the police right now, I guess they don't see any point in and trying to stop this, because at this point, there's no reason to, I guess, in their mind, as long as they're all just kind of not hurting anyone. You know, it's one thing to destroy property, but it's another thing when you start to hurt people or violence in a sense towards people.
And when the police did start moving into this location, they started getting bottles thrown at them and they pulled back. Instead of continuing to stay in the middle of the crowd here and to just escalate, they decided -- you know what? It's better that we pull back and they have pulled back and they've gone back to the corner that I was at earlier.
I am starting to see some police officers move towards here, but I'm not sure they're -- it's only one officer. So --
ABEL: Yes. And Shimon --
PROKUPECZ: -- but they're -- they may try to --
ABEL: -- right now, we have a split screen of your shot, as well as Times Square, where we're starting to see a stream of police officers, of cars coming through that area as well. Can you talk to us about not just the officers on the ground, but they, certainly, they must have some sort of security apparatus around where they are watching live cameras and things of that nature as well, to be able to coordinate their -- where they are sending their officers.
PROKUPECZ: Right, that's a very good point, Brian. There are NYPD helicopters in the air. They also have drones in the air. So they're able to watch what's going on. And so by watching from the sky, they can then make determinations of when they should move in or if they should stay back.
[02:10:02]
The -- and there you're seeing some fireworks here. And just above the fireworks, I'm seeing an NYPD helicopter fly by. You know, the NYPD will stand by. They will watch this and watch this and watch this. And then they will wait for someone, a chief, someone very high up to say, OK, enough is enough. We need to move this crowd.
But once the NYPD starts to engage the crowd, it changes the dynamic because then the crowd gets angry and then it just -- the violence increases and the confrontation increases. And they have to make a judgment call here at this point if that's worth it. And I'm sure those discussions are happening with the chiefs and the leaders of the NYPD about what to do next.
I also assume that a lot of -- we're starting to see a lot of people come to this area. And I think part of that is probably because of social media. They're all following each other. Stuff is happening. And so a lot of people are watching. And so if they're in one area, they're seeing all the excitement here.
And so they're coming here. And definitely that is what's been happening. I'm trying to figure out. I'm seeing some lights behind me. And now they've opened the hood of this school bus. And so I don't know, I feel like --
ABEL: Yes.
PROKUPECZ: -- the school bus hood is going to be gone here in a few seconds. ABEL: And that's exactly --
PROKUPECZ: We're safe, Brian. I just want to you to know, you know, we're good here. So we're standing back, but we're just watching this and letting everyone see what's happening here. This is beyond the celebration at this point. I think this starts to get a little over the top and totally unnecessary.
But, again, the NYPD is allowing this for now. And we'll see how -- I'm not seeing them even come anywhere near this location at this point. And everyone is here. They have their cameras out.
ABEL: That was what I was going to ask you next, Shimon, is in your shot. We're not -- I'm not seeing a single officer in that shot that I can make out. And yet we're seeing this hood about to come off, and then whatever is happening right now.
PROKUPECZ: I think -- just stay with us, stay with us. I think there's concern something we could hear something hissing. And I'm wondering if there's concern that, like, the bus was going to -- I'm not sure why people are running. I'm trying to figure out why people are running. But I think it's -- someone lit a fire extinguisher here.
Stay, stay, stay. We're OK. It's a fire extinguisher. So there was a hissing sound. Are you OK, Effie? OK, there -- well just we're good, Brian. We're good here. But there was a some kind of a hissing sound. And I think it was the fire extinguisher that got everyone.
And, I mean, they're messing with this bus. And I'm sure there was some concern that, you know, there's always the concern that something's going to explode. OK, they're saying they thought something to do with the gas here with the bus. But that was a fire extinguisher that someone had -- was using to spray.
But we -- are you good at -- our team is good. You're good? Yes? OK. So we're good. We're watching this and we'll see. For now, again, it's remarkable how the NYPD is just allowing that at this point, they're going to allow them to continue to do this.
There is definitely a level of escalation here that we had not seen earlier. And we saw now two police cars completely trashed by whoever. They attacked two police cars. One of the police cars is still here. The entire windshield destroyed other parts of the car.
OK, here we're starting to see the police here move in. Some officers here from the legal department, which is usually the first step to try and move the crowd. And now we're seeing more officers start to move towards this direction. So I assume what's about to happen is they're going to tell -- they're going to try to push this crowd back.
But I have not yet seen any of the disorder control or any of the officers that deal with crowds and pushing crowds back yet. Right now, we're just seeing a small group of officers. But what's really concerning, Brian, is that people -- I don't know where -- there are just people that are continuing to come into this area and I have no idea where they're coming from. And it seems that the police at this point have not cut off any of the traffic into this area. And that's what I find a little puzzling because --
ABEL: (INAUDIBLE) other people from coming into there.
[02:15:07]
PROKUPECZ: Yes, yes, yes. Because they had put up barriers and for a while you couldn't walk this way. But all of a sudden, something has changed here and they are allowing people to walk up the street. I don't really have eyes down too close as to what the police are doing, but there were probably about two dozen officers with helmets on that started moving towards this area.
That seemed to -- seems to have temporarily stopped some activity. But it could also be that police officers may have come from the other side as well and we're just not seeing that.
But this is -- I want to show you. Effie, can we show this police car? This is the car that I'm talking about. The police car that they completely destroyed here, the windows here. And then they broke the windshield here. So this is definitely going to be something that the NYPD, I'm sure, will be talking about come hours from now as to some of what they had to deal with.
But for the most part, I will say, outside of the pockets of what we're seeing here, this has been a very relatively peaceful night. I just don't -- I'm trying to figure out why people are still being allowed to walk into this area. And we have some people that are just standing around and celebrating.
ABEL: And then, you know, we saw there were people on top of that bus when those officers that you saw walk past you move in there. We don't see anybody on top of that bus right now. But yes, to your point, we also haven't seen any police officers with, you know, shields or anything like -- anything of that nature either.
Shimon, stand by for us again. Stay safe, your crew.
We're going to go to Mark Morales now to see what you are experiencing. Mark, tell us more.
MARK MORALES, CNN REPORTER: Well, really on the edge of Times Square here on 42nd Street. And what we were just seeing is just a surge of police just coming down in either their vehicles or on foot. And what they were trying to do was just clear the streets.
You saw, not too long ago, we were sort of running away from when they were ripping apart that bus. And what they were doing was they surged into the street. They pushed everybody off and they were really clearing everything out so they could get everyone off and start bringing in some of their emergency services vehicles.
So we've been watching them and you see them right here. There's a pair here walking down. And there are groups of officers that are walking through and you see their cars all around. And what they're doing is they're trying to maintain the street. They're trying to keep the street clear so that everybody can stay on the sidewalk and they can bring in their vehicles.
We saw a steady stream of their SUVs and other -- all other vehicles just going straight towards downtown. They're redeploying their assets to where they need them the most. And again, like for the most part, the night has been -- the night was very peaceful.
The night started out, no real issue in a celebratory mood. But you do have these pockets of violence. And we did see what happened over there with those buses and we did see where things are happening.
And for the most part, the temperature down here seems to have been calmed once they started really sending the influx of police officers. People now, for the most part, are pretty calm. They're sort of milling about on the sidewalks and kind of walking through.
But that element of throwing bottles into the air and running around, that's gone away from that. But we'll still have to see because we've got a long way to go for the rest of this night. Brian?
ABEL: All right, Mark, and, you know, what you saw earlier with the bus hood being pulled off is what Shimon was about to see as well. And now we are seeing at least where Shimon is. That bus being -- if we can go back to Shimon shot, that bus being surrounded by police officers that seemingly are either protecting or just stopping people from getting onto it.
Shimon, what have you seen in the last few minutes? And Shimon, I might not be able to hear us right now, but from what we can see here --
PROKUPECZ: No, I can hear you, guys. I can hear you.
ABEL: OK. Shimon, what have you experienced in the last few minutes?
PROKUPECZ: So, remember, you were watching all the people on the bus, surrounding the bus. Well, this is why the police moved in. They moved in to trying -- they needed to calm things down here.
And so what they did was obviously they've surrounded the bus now. They've pushed people back. They've gotten people off the bus, out of the bus, trying to calm things down here. We are seeing at least two people under arrest here. And in the distance, we're watching fireworks go off.
[02:20:05]
The NYPD is now surrounding this bus. They've managed to push some of the people off onto the sidewalk. But certainly, there's been no confrontations between the police and the people out here. So, so far, the police have been able to keep everyone back and they're not really engaging with the crowd.
They were successfully able to push people from this bus, away from this bus, which was drawing a lot of attention and really creating a lot of chaos out here. So that has now calmed down. And now we need to figure out because they've made two arrests. So they're going to need to get the people they arrested out of here.
And most of the people at this point are now staying on the sidewalk. And this may force some of the people to now leave now because the police are telling people now to move from the area, to get on the sidewalk. I mean, for quite some time, as you saw, people were able to just come and stream into this area and no one was stopping them.
And so, the crowds were growing and growing and growing. And finally, the police have stepped in and have calm things down here. And we're watching people now head in different directions, trying to get out of here. Most of the people are standing around at this point, videotaping with their phones and talking to the police. But the police are not really engaging.
But I want to show you here, those -- there's two people there that are in handcuffs. So now the NYPD is going to wait for a car to come and to remove them. But usually it takes -- you're seeing white shirt officers here. Those are some of the more senior, some of the leaders of the NYPD. And it's usually them who make the decision about when to interact with the crowd.
And as they were watching what was happening with this bus, a number of them were watching and watching. And it was just a matter of time. And then finally, a decision was made. We need to break this up. And that's when they moved in.
And it seemed to work because it did calm things down. And it is now forcing most of the people who are in this area to start walking away. As the police here just wait for these two people who -- these two men who are under -- who are in handcuffs and being detained to be taken away. And people are continuing to just walk through here.
ABEL: Shimon, you know, you were talking earlier as the camera was pointing in the very same direction it is now. We were seeing the people streaming in that area from behind you towards the bus. Are you seeing any other points now, like, crowd control points where they've stopped letting people into that area, period, aside from what we are seeing right here with this line of officers?
PROKUPECZ: No, they're not. They're still allowing people to stream -- like people are still able to come into this area. Behind me here -- if you, let's show Brian this. I mean, this is -- people are just here now. They're surrounding that police car that I was showing you earlier with all the damage, taking photos. So that's drawing a lot of attention at the -- at this moment.
But no one is being told that they need to leave. They're told to get on the sidewalk, to clear the area where we were with the bus. But pretty much it's up to the people here when they're going to leave, because no one from the police at this point is telling them to leave.
And then on the other side, let me show you here, Brian. You know, there's a whole other crowd this way that also has been just gathering and just standing there. And this is the area where we've been seeing a lot of fireworks coming -- going off from this area here. And a lot of people have just been gathering.
So both sides here on 34th Street. We're on 34th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, and both sides just have people there. And the NYPD is at this point in no way preventing them, allowing them to continue. There's something that's on fire. It looks like trash. We're going to try to get closer here to show you.
But these are the kinds of things that, you know, start to escalate. Police response start to excite people, increase some of the confrontation between police and the people out here in the street. And something is burning. I can't tell -- I'm going to try to see if we could show you. It's a piece of furniture or just garbage.
[02:25:05]
ABEL: And while you do that -- while you do that, Shimon, you know, when we talked with one of the experts, a retired FBI agent earlier, they were talking about how, you know, police are outnumbered by how -- by the sheer number of people that are out in the streets right now.
PROKUPECZ: Yes, I don't -- look, I mean, I don't -- I mean, there's a lot of police out here. And certainly when you have, you know, police, they can deploy into this area in very large, strong number of officers if they wanted to. But this is a strategic decision by the NYPD, because at this point for them, if it's just things like this, that maybe they feel they don't need to interact with the crowd and interject themselves and create more problems and more violence.
Because there is always an escalation when the police start to confront people, always. And right now for the NYPD, it's all about de-escalation until it's necessary to start to increase their presence and then force their way through the crowd.
ABEL: OK, Shimon, stay with us. We're going to go to Richard Kolko again here. Richard, if you're with us, I kind of just want to get your take on what we've seen since the last time that we had a conversation, because it does seem to be a bit of an escalation is kind of the word that Shimon has been using throughout the evening in bits and spurts.
RICHARD KOLKO, FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT (RET.): I agree with that exactly. Shimon's right. He's seen -- the tone change quickly over the last couple of hours. I mean, it's compounded by -- he was right on the market when he said social media is certainly bringing other people out there. You're sitting in your home. You're watching social media and decide to go out.
Don't forget, it's Saturday night. That alone will bring people out. So it's not a weekday, which would have changed things a little bit. And it's going to be a dangerous situation. I think the police have some very difficult decisions to make here.
They're going to base it based on people's safety and property safety, which should both fall under their purview. But right now, I see some fires. But if it gets to looting or cars being overturned and fires, you're going to see a much larger police presence.
They're probably strategically gearing up somewhere right now, being prepared to respond, where they need to respond. I'm certain there are various hotspots in the city that they -- they're ready to go to if necessary. And they probably know which ones those are just based on their experience and history.
But they've got the experience, they've got the equipment there. They're prepared and they want to hold off as long as they can, because you're right, once they go out there and, you know, fully geared up, it can cause more confrontation and more problems. But the police are there to make keep people safe.
That's a New York City full of tourists. I mean, can you imagine being a tourist? You came to see a show on Broadway and you walk out and you see this. I mean, you're going to be terrified.
So there's a lot of responsibility that the city needs to follow up on here. And they will. They're good at it.
ABEL: Or you're going to, you know, you went to that concert at MSG tonight or something like that, or back and forth between the World Cup. Richard, talk to us a little bit more about -- you were mentioning there that they're monitoring. They have an idea of where these hotspots will pick up and their ability to respond to them.
I don't necessarily want to be playing Monday quarterback as we're still at Sunday, technically here when it comes to this event. Have you seen moments so far tonight where police, you believe, may -- it may have crossed that line where stepping in would have been a good idea? Or how have you seen things play out so far in regards to when they have decided to step in versus letting the fans do what they're doing?
KOLKO: Well, police are tracking this at 1PP, you know, the operations center there. They've -- the whole city is marked with cameras. They've got drones in the air. They know where the hotspots are so they can track where that is and where they need to be prepared to respond.
We've got a couple of cameras out there. So we've seen very limited issues of what's going on in the city. I'm trying to follow along here online. There have been arrests throughout the city. There are other areas where there is some damage to some fire department vehicles as well.
So when they do that and they count it up tomorrow morning when the sun's up, there'll probably be more small bits of problems that we're not quite aware of yet. But that's ongoing. But there are police leaders that are making decisions back at 1PP on what needs to be done, where they need to go and how heavily prepared they need to be.
But again, we see some fires. We see some police vehicles broken up. We see -- I see some -- you know, watching the video now, we see some officers ready to go, the community affairs officers. Those are the officers whose job working in the precincts.
[02:30:08]
They're the ones that go to the community meetings. They establish the liaison with the community. They know people on the streets in their area. So they're a great asset to help talk to people. They've got a good feeling for what's going on on the street, on the ground.
And you combine all of this with the intelligence services of the NYPD, with other law enforcement that may be involved, and they can paint a pretty good picture of what's going on in the city, where groups or crowds are moving, where there's flare-ups, where there's hot spots, and where they need to be prepared to respond.
ABEL: And Richard, I appreciate you explaining for us the community affairs officers versus some of the other officers that we're seeing there right now. And to your point, you were saying you've been in contact with some NYPD contacts that are telling you that there's other vehicles and things like that. And -- hold on for just a second, Richard, because I do want to go back to Shimon here.
Shimon, if you're able to hear me, we're coming back to you right now. What are you seeing?
PROKUPECZ: Brian, can you hear me?
ABEL: I can hear you OK. Go ahead, Shimon.
PROKUPECZ: OK, so we're starting to see -- there's going to be certainly an escalation here because the NYPD, for the first time tonight that we're seeing, have brought out the horses. The horses are out here now, so it's very clear that they may make a decision here to move the horses in. People are throwing bottles at the horses now, which is going to only increase the tension here.
And what we're probably going to see here at any point here is that the horses -- Effie, let's move this way, because if the horses start coming this way, we're going to want to get ahead of them. They need to break this crowd up at this point. You've got this crowd that's gathered here, and then we've got the crowd that's behind the school bus here.
I was just watching -- and here we go, the horses are starting to move. So you're going to start seeing people running, because you certainly don't want to get trampled or stepped on by this horse. But this is a show of force by the NYPD.
They are -- this is not -- they don't normally do this. (Technical difficulty) to get this crowd under control, and what they're doing is they're going to use, it appears at this point, the horses here to try and move the crowd back. And they're now proceeding -- let's keep walking this way, guys.
And so we're going to try to get here. We'll be able to -- we're close to the sidewalk, Brian, so we'll be able to jump on the sidewalk as -- yes, we're going to get up on the sidewalk here. ABEL: And, Shimon, from your perspective, can you see any point where they're trying to clear people to? Is there a stop point for --
PROKUPECZ: Yes, yes.
ABEL: -- this line of horses?
PROKUPECZ: So behind the horses here, you could see in the distance, those are the kind of the crowd control officers, specially trained in moving crowds and pushing crowds back. They are the strategic -- some of them are the strategic response group officers, some are disorder control.
And you will hear them now. I just heard them saying, "Move, move, move." And this is them speaking to the crowd. So the NYPD here, the leaders of the NYPD have now decided that they have had enough and that they are going to try to clear this area. And so they have moved all of these officers in, and you could see the horses here.
And even the horses here have protective gear over their eyes to -- if people start throwing things at them. It's a way, obviously, for the horses to protect themselves. But this is something that the mounted unit of the NYPD trains for, crowd control. And this is what they are used for for years, as we've seen in other police departments. These horses are used for crowd control.
Effie? Effie, let's walk a little. Let's walk a little so that we have some space in case we need to get out of the way. And now I'm watching officers tell people to get on the sidewalk. So we're going to -- we're watching here to see how far down the officers here, the mounted officers, the officers on the horses are going to proceed.
But the NYPD has moved the horses into this area, and behind them are several dozen officers in with helmets, with loudspeakers, telling people to move back. Because just behind me here, there is a very large group of people that set something on fire. We watched them attack this school bus and basically take control of it.
[02:35:11]
We've seen two police cars here vandalized. And now the NYPD has made a decision that they're going to move in and they're going to move people back. We're watching people here. It's kind of like this New York moment here, take photos.
I mean, this is serious stuff here. And for the NYPD to do this, clearly, they have some concern now. And so they want to move the crowds out and they want to try and get some control --
ABEL: We see something in the hands of these police officers there.
PROKUPECZ: Yes.
ABEL: What's in their hands?
PROKUPECZ: Very good observation. It's pepper spray. It's, you know, what pepper spray, basically. So the NYPD does not use tear gas. They do not use pepper balls like we see other police departments in disorder control. The NYPD does not use that. They do use pepper spray and those canisters, that's what that is.
And again, it's another way for crowd control in a way. And I'm hearing officers on loudspeakers and we're now hearing them. Let me know if you could hear this.
OFFICERS: Move!
PROKUPECZ: You hear that, "Move. Move back. And so the officers are speaking on those loudspeakers, trying to get the crowd up on the sidewalk, trying to get people out of this area.
ABEL: And we did hear that a little bit, Shimon. And I am curious, I know I want you to keep your eye on that line of mounted patrol, but where those other officers were going with the pepper spray? Were they going to a particular area or were they just walking just to walk?
PROKUPECZ: Yes. They are going -- and thank you for pointing that out. I'm going to try to show you what's happening here. We're going to walk here so I could show you. They were going towards this direction here where there is a large crowd. You could see smoke.
They are -- they were going in this direction. It's very clear that they want to try to get this group out of this area. That appears to have set some things on fire. There's a large group there, but they have now -- they're concentrating on that area.
ABEL: And we see that car that's going to start blocking people too, it looks like, or that car's just moving out of the area there that's in the street now.
PROKUPECZ: Now, I mean, we're also seeing -- so the police have moved into this area. We're hearing fireworks, but they brought a fire extinguisher over to try and to put out the trash fire. So that's what we were seeing here. And the police came over and they used the fire extinguisher here to put out this fire here. And they're just surrounding this area.
Let's go, Effie, let's go back. We're going to go back towards the area of where the -- there's the fireworks here. So some of the officers here are moving away from this location. And I don't know if they're going to try to go towards where the fireworks are going off, but a number of them are heading in that direction.
I don't know, but I'm trying to also, Brian, keep an eye on what's happening behind me with the horses, which are still where they were. But let's walk this way and see what's happening here.
ABEL: Yes, because it looks like the patrol were kind of like holding a line there while whatever's happening where you're --
PROKUPECZ: Yes.
ABEL: -- in the direction where you're heading right now gets taken care of.
PROKUPECZ: OK. So actually I should correct myself. It looks like what the officers, some of the officers were holding in their hands could be like a fire extinguisher.
ABEL: Yes.
PROKUPECZ: I just saw some of them on the can. It says cold fire extinguisher, I think it says. So that's what they were holding but now something else is on fire or there's smoke in this direction. And that's why we're seeing the police head in this direction.
Effie, let's show here the smoke and maybe they're going to extinguish. I could smell something burning. But again, this is the escalation. Once you start setting things on fire, it changes the dynamic and it changes the situation. And in part, this is why we're seeing the NYPD respond here in the way that they're responding.
ABEL: And Shimon, and maybe this is what you were just about to address while you're walking that way. What a difference about just the density of the people in that area from when we were talking not even like a half an hour ago, right?
[02:40:00]
PROKUPECZ: Yes, and just the crowd shifted. It changed. The dynamics changed here very quickly and I don't know what happened. It was certainly there -- we saw an escalation from the crowd and what they were doing, climbing that bus and trying to tear that bus apart.
But I also think what happened, Brian, those police cars being vandalized, I think that started to change everything as well. I had not seen that earlier. And then when I walked over to see those two patrol cars damaged in that way, that certainly changes everything.
And for the NYPD, it's their property being destroyed. And so naturally, they're going to want to respond. And so they have responded in some form by moving the crowd out of this area because it was getting too dangerous and in some way, an increase in some violence.
And so the, you know, the chiefs, and you can tell they're -- one of the chiefs is out here in the white shirt making a lot of -- we're just seeing some more officers come into this area, making the decisions on when to move in, when to make arrests, when to clear people.
And we're just -- so now we're on Fifth Avenue. We have not been on this side, Brian. This is -- yes, there's a lot of people out there as well. And this is the area of where some of the fireworks, we're hearing them now. But this is an area of where many of the fireworks have been coming from.
And we're seeing some fire trucks try to get through here. But certainly there's a lot of people still out here.
ABEL: Yes. It seems like you have moved back to an area.
PROKUPECZ: Fireworks, fireworks. We're OK. We're OK.
ABEL: OK.
PROKUPECZ: Just fireworks. But, yes, this is --
ABEL: Yes. And you were able to catch that too.
PROKUPECZ: Yes. It's loud. But I think it's only a matter of time before the NYPD is going to probably put an end to this. Because that was pretty loud.
Interesting. I'm just watching some of the chiefs here as they're assessing the situation. And we'll probably need to make a decision here soon of what to do in this area. But I think they're trying to, at this point, get some control over these streets.
Because at this point here, at this location, they do not have control. And it's very clear they're trying to get some control over the situation.
ABEL: And so you haven't seen, Shimon, any like steel barricades, any metal grates, anything like that being used to direct traffic?
PROKUPECZ: No, nothing. Earlier we did, where we were on 34th and 6th. But now look at all, I don't know if you could see that in the distance. Effie, can you see that? We see people hanging on that scaffolding.
This whole area here still has hundreds of people in it. Let me come this way. Come this way, Effie. Let's see if we could see anything. We'll try to show you what's how -- there's a lot of people here. OK. I see what's going on.
We had not been over this area, Brian, before. But yes, this entire street here is just -- so this is where a lot of people, I guess, drifted. Oh, wow, yes. I can't really see that far here.
But, yes, as you can see, I mean, they have -- on top of the scaffolding here, on top of this, they're hanging on the bars there. Some of them are starting to come down. There are some fire trucks here, I guess, was trying to respond to some of the fires that have been burning.
But the NYPD has put them out. But now the fire trucks are stuck in this area. I don't know how they're going to get them out, but I think that's something the NYPD is going to have to figure out.
But, yes, this is where everyone is gathering at this point. And again, traffic is completely blocked. And it'll be only a matter of time, probably, before the NYPD decides that they're going to need to move in here and clear this out, especially after what we've seen earlier with the school bus vandalizing those police cars.
But, I mean, I thought people were leaving, and they want (INAUDIBLE) this way, Brian. I am just shocked to see that there are still so many people out on the street, and there are cars everywhere. What, it's like almost 3:00 in the morning at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 2:46.
PROKUPECZ: Yes, 2:46 in the morning. And, I mean, people are out. And the NYPD has some decisions here that they're going to need to make of at what point do they start clearing this. And I'm trying to see here, Brian, if I could see the horses and what's going on with the horses. But I think I kind of see where they are at this point.
[02:45:08]
ABEL: And you put on -- you put some distance there between you and where they were earlier. But it does seem like that street, at least with these officers here that you're following, is much more clear than it was an hour or so ago. And so, one of my questions to you, Shimon, is does it feel like they're just pushing people into new areas, or are they truly trying to disperse people in the area, period?
PROKUPECZ: So, I think they've just pushed people into new areas, or people have left one area that was getting a lot of attention and are just sort of now going somewhere else where they're drawing attention. And so, the NYPD was able to -- the officers were able to move a lot of the people from the middle of this street here, this one block between 5th and 6th Avenue on 34th Street.
The horses are coming closer. So I think I could see them here, Brian, and I could hear those officers saying, move. So I think they're going to be heading towards this direction and probably towards where this crowd is that we just were at. So we're going to see.
I mean, we're going to see. This is like kind of -- let's see what happens here, because if people don't leave, if people don't move -- I mean, you're going to have to move because of the horse. But what happens and at what point does the NYPD start to make arrests or start to really confront -- start those confrontations and engaging the crowd?
Because for the most part, I have to say, the NYPD has shown a lot of patience and has allowed people who wanted to be out here celebrating. But at some point, it's gotten to be a little over the top and there's been some vandalism. And at that point is when they start to take action.
ABEL: Yes. And Shimon --
PROKUPECZ: But I could show you here -- we're back by the horses, Brian.
ABEL: Yes. Go ahead and show us that moment, and then I'm going to let you kind of reassess here in just a moment as well.
PROKUPECZ: Yes. So, I wonder -- so, here are the horses now. They're going to keep it seems. And then behind them -- I'm going to try to get you a better shot of the officers that are behind them, because I kind of want to give you a sense of where things are going here.
Let me try to -- I'm going to just get -- Effie, I want to show Brian the -- these are the officers that are behind. And they're the ones that would ultimately move in to make arrests. They'll make an announcement telling people to move.
And at some point, they may say, if you don't leave, we're going to start to, you know, your -- this is an unlawful assembly and start to move in and make arrests. But for now, they're just advancing towards the crowd, staying behind the horses as they move forward.
ABEL: But also, Shimon, that's the first -- this is the first time -- and correct me if I'm wrong here -- that we are seeing officers with those makeshift zip-tie cuffs, correct?
PROKUPECZ: Yes, that is correct. And these are the officers. I believe this is either SRG or disorder control. So, they're the -- these are the guys that would normally -- this is what they train for. And so, yes, these are the strategic response group, officers who deal with protests and situations like this, all kinds of training to deal with this.
And they would ultimately, if they're told to start making arrests, they start making arrests. And what happens is that that is a decision that is made by white shirts, chiefs. And those chiefs decide when it's time. There's a lot of consultation with lawyers.
The NYPD -- the deputy commissioner of legal affairs is out here. I saw him. And so, he would be the one that would make a decision on when to start making arrests, when they can legally make arrests. So you see this officer here saying they want to open the street. They just want people on the sidewalk.
They're telling people they could stay here. They could stay on the sidewalk. But they want to open the street, because they're hoping if they open the traffic, people will move. It's all -- you know, it's kind of like a tactic here.
Let's open the traffic. And by opening the traffic, maybe people will leave without them having to confront people and force them off the streets.
ABEL: Right. And we don't want to lose sight of the fact, Shimon, that, you know, this is a major city. You're in a major part of a major city.
[02:50:05]
And people need to get from point A to point B, right? And there's not -- or at least it seems like it from what we are seeing here tonight -- not too many options for people to do that.
PROKUPECZ: No, there isn't, because, I mean, for hours, right after the NYX won, streets all over Manhattan were -- you couldn't pass. I mean, I was walking on the avenues, and cars were stuck, were stuck for hours. And now we're hearing them. But here's what's interesting. They're telling people to stay on the sidewalk, but then we're seeing many of the officers on the sidewalk as well, pushing people back. So it's very clear they want this area cleared out. They're trying to do it this way. We'll see if it works.
They're going very slowly here right now. I'm just trying to see what -- OK, we're just watching them as they're continuing to walk. I mean, there's still a lot of people out here, Brian, especially as we get closer to Fifth Avenue. We're like halfway between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue right now.
And so let's see what 32 --
ABEL: (INAUDIBLE), Shimon?
PROKUPECZ: Yes, we're still on 34th. And, you know, there's that large crowd of people on Fifth Avenue. And I'm wondering if they're going to head towards that way to try to clear that area out. They've not been over there yet. They're starting here, it seems. And let's see what happens.
ABEL: And what do you make of all these people, Shimon, that are in front of you with their cameras out? Are this the -- you know, the social media folks, the streamers that you were talking about earlier, or is it something different?
PROKUPECZ: No, I think some of them have been out here. Some of them are definitely the streamers and the people that are posting on social media. But a lot of them just seem to have gathered here, probably just hearing on social media -- you know, something was happening at 34th Street. And so they decided to all come this way.
But that's there were more people that were trying to go this way. I saw the reaction. They were like, oh, wow. Because this is not -- this wasn't happening earlier. This all started, right, in the last hour or so when the police started moving in to clear this area out.
But they're clearly, at this point, in a posture, a much different posture, and they want to clear this area out, get control of the streets here on 34th Street, get people home, get people out. It's -- and you hear some people here screaming from the crowd, where are we going?
I don't think the NYPD really cares. They just really want to get people out of this area and to start clearing this area. And also to avoid trying to prevent anything worse here and making sure nothing bad happens.
ABEL: And it seems to this point, Shimon, like most people are adhering to not only the mounted patrol, but that other line of officers, and they are moving along with them?
PROKUPECZ: Yes, they are. I mean, it's hard to not follow. I mean, there -- t's kind of with force in some ways. They're really pushing people back. They're not forcing people. They're not pushing, pushing. But by the way they're walking and the way they're telling people to
move back, I think they're getting the message. And I think some people will try to get close to them as we see with this group here. But it's just, you know, yelling and screaming by this group here, and the NYPD is just going to keep moving towards them and forcing them back. There are some confrontations and the crowd yelling at them.
ABEL: And Shimon, for the folks that have been with us for a while, I do want to make sure -- because I know I might have gotten my left and rights mixed up here. This crowd is moving towards that larger crowd that you saw by 5th.
PROKUPECZ: That's exactly right. So I think what's going to happen is they're going to box this kind of this crowd in, push them over there, and then start to probably -- start to push the 5th Avenue crowd out as well. And I'm sure the crowd on 5th Avenue is going to start to get word that the police are coming, and so maybe they'll start clearing out before they get there.
But it's very clear here, the NYPD bringing the horses in, bringing those officers in. They have decided that they need to be aggressive here and just take control.
[02:55:13]
And so far, when they tell people to move back, people are moving back so far.
ABEL: OK. Shimon, thank you very much for bringing us these images of NYPD starting to use a larger presence, including mounted patrol, in order to start moving fans and people celebrating the Knicks' historic win out of the streets here in New York City. This scene here, 34th and between 5th and 6th Avenue, as police start moving further and further into the crowds.
You've been watching CNN Newsroom. We'll be right back.
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