Prominent New York City retail spaces were hit by widespread looting on Monday night, as authorities followed cities across the country in introducing a curfew in response to protests and violence.
Looters gained entrance to the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square, which had been boarded up, while others targeted stores like luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman, a Microsoft store and a Barnes and Noble along Fifth Avenue, the New York Times reported.
Similar scenes had played out a night prior in Soho and the Flatiron District, when stores like Chanel, Adidas, as well as various smaller retailers saw their properties ransacked.
Much of the chaos had died down by 11 p.m., when the curfew came into effect, although there continued to be reports of fires and looting in the Bronx, Soho and elsewhere. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that a curfew would be imposed earlier on Tuesday night, starting at 8 p.m.
“We’re seeing too much of this activity tonight,” he told NY1.
Many of the impacted retailers were already struggling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Groups of peaceful protesters also continued to walk the streets after 11 p.m. in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
“They’re not with us!” one Whole Foods supervisor from Brooklyn told the Times, speaking of looters at Union Square. “It’s giving a bad name to us people who are out here trying to do the right thing, the people who walked away.” [NYT] — Kevin Sun