{"id":386610,"date":"2026-10-29T14:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/386610\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T14:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:00:59","slug":"14-arrested-after-protesters-block-brooklyn-bridge-ramp-demand-ice-abolition-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/386610\/","title":{"rendered":"14 arrested after protesters block Brooklyn Bridge ramp, demand ICE abolition \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 80 activists blocked the northbound entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, bringing traffic to a standstill for about an hour on Oct. 28.<\/p>\n

The demonstrators \u2014 representing Extinction Rebellion New York City, Climate Defiance, Planet Over Profit and Port of Elizabeth Movement \u2014 carried two yellow banners, one reading \u201cStop Shooting Us\u201d and the other \u201cStop Shooting Our Neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protest led to the arrest of 14 protesters who refused to clear the roadway.<\/p>\n

\"\"The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

The protesters demanded that the NYPD stop cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and called for the release of Oscar Belgal from federal custody<\/a>. Belgal, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was shot by an ICE agent in Manhattan\u2019s Marble Hill neighborhood on Oct. 8 while sitting in his car with his son in the back seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not stand by while our neighbors and children, our mothers and brothers, are shot in the streets, terrorized as they go to school, feed our country, and care for our sick,\u201d Climate Defiance organizer Nate Smith said. \u201cWe will not pretend we aren\u2019t at the epicenter of a colonial power that harvests other countries\u2019 resources and burns those resources, collapsing the climate, ruining harvests, raising seas and oceans, drying up rivers, and displacing some 1.2 billion people by 2050, according to conservative UN estimates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old father of two is being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park<\/a>, where protesters say his condition is deteriorating because the bullet is allegedly still lodged in his neck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re using our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and protest to tell our elected officials that this is not something that we should put up,\u201d one protester told Brooklyn Paper.<\/p>\n

\"\"Protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"A driver is stuck as protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez<\/a> denied Belgal\u2019s request for release and ordered him to remain in ICE custody at the Sunset Park facility. The center is New York City\u2019s only long-term ICE detention center and currently houses 200 detained immigrants under what civil rights advocates describe as inhumane conditions.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez also argued that Belgal had received adequate medical treatment, saying he was assessed and treated at the detention center with medication, wound care and concussion monitoring. Belgal also received CT scans at Brooklyn Hospital, leading medical providers to conclude that he did not need acute surgical or medical care at that time or specialized medical care while in custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen considered in conjunction, Petitioner\u2019s submissions characterize his medical care as inadequate and dangerous, but the government\u2019s submissions, including the Medical Records, show that he has received necessary and appropriate care and that his medical condition is stable. Accordingly, Petitioner has failed to demonstrate that his immediate release is necessary pending adjudication of his Petition,\u201d Gonzalez wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"Protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Gonzalez\u2019s ruling drew a prompt response from the Legal Aid Society, which vowed to continue fighting for Belgal\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling leaves Mr. Belgal in detention despite the concerns surrounding his deteriorating medical condition and raises serious questions about whether his health and basic human dignity are being given the weight they deserve,\u201d the statement reads, noting that more than 50 people have died in ICE custody since 2025, \u201craising serious questions about the agency\u2019s treatment of medically vulnerable individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

One protester, Nicole, called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to the mayor to make sure that the NYPD does not work with ICE officials,\u201d Nicole told Brooklyn Paper. And again and again, we see NYPD assisting ICE, letting the cars go through, letting the officers go through, blocking protesters that are trying to block the cars or stop the arrests. I know Mamdani is anti-ICE, [but] he needs to step it up and have stronger consequences for the NYPD if they\u2019re assisting with ICE and the Feds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"NYPD officers are preparing to arrest protestors blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Brooklynite Rarri joined the protest after seeing a livestream on Instagram. He told Brooklyn Paper that, like the demonstrators, he was frustrated with the current political climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could be frustrated on my couch at home on Instagram, or I could be frustrated outside with the people,\u201d Rarri said.<\/p>\n

He added that he lived near the ICE memorial in Brooklyn\u2019s Little Haiti, dedicated to Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student who died by suicide following the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.<\/p>\n

\"\"Brooklynite Rarri joined the protest after seeing live video on Instagram. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all deserve to be treated as people, to be treated equally, and I don\u2019t understand how nobody else is as frustrated or sees what\u2019s going on,\u201d Rarri said. \u201cI don\u2019t know much, but it don\u2019t take much. You don\u2019t need to be a highly educated person to see that right is right and wrong is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 80 activists blocked the northbound entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, bringing traffic to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,13006,100,99,81409,140761,2035,8072,43897,9,24,12,370,63,103,136227,140762,6986],"class_list":["post-386610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-bridge-animal-welfare-coalition","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-climate-defiance","tag-extinction-rebellion-new-york-city","tag-ice","tag-ice-arrest","tag-ice-shooting","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-oscar-belgal","tag-planet-over-profit","tag-protest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}