14 busted as rowdy anti-Israel protesters descend on NYC rally for VP Kamala Harris: cops
More than a dozen people – including a Big Apple sales rep and music teacher – were busted as rowdy anti-Israel protesters descended on a Harlem rally for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Fourteen people were taken into custody – with two of them slapped with criminal charges — following the Wednesday night mayhem, according to police.
Aida Kapica, 27, a sales development representative who lives on Staten Island, was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted assault in the second degree, attempted assault in the third degree, two counts of disorderly conduct, as well as resisting arrest, police said.
On her social media accounts, she has called President Biden “a g*nocidal maniac,” raged that “Z*onism is a disease” and declared, “My personality trait is being Albanian and always repping Palestine.”
“When not working you can find me reading Kafka, Darwish and Khaled Hosseini. Enjoy traveling and immersing myself in new cultures,” she posted on her LinkedIn account.
Keli Sutter, 45, of Upper Manhattan, was charged with criminal mischief, riot and resisting arrest, cops said.
The chaos continued during the pair’s Thursday night arraignment — which was plagued with rambunctious performances from their fellow protesters.
The mask-wearing crowd surrounded both Kapica and Sutter to shield them from photographers as they were escorted out of the courtroom, even going so far as to cover Sutter’s face with sunglasses and a scarf.
Several argued with police officers in the courthouse hallways, with one calling a cop “a piece of s–t.”
During Kapica’s arraignment, prosecutors referred to video of the protester disputing with NYPD officers outside the Harris rally, saying it showed her repeatedly demanding that they not take her bag because she needed it “for work.”
She was carrying what appears to be a cardboard sign inside the bag, according to the video.
Sutter, who donned long army pants and a long black T-shirt, was accused of disturbing a witness during the demonstration.
Her defense lawyer agreed to the prosecution’s request for an order of protection against a woman.
Kapica and Sutter were released on their own recognizance. They are due back in court Sept. 19 and 17, respectively.
Nine people, ranging in age from 21 to 51, were given criminal court summonses and three were released with desk appearance tickets.
The majority lived in New York, though one of the arrested protesters was from Bayonne, NJ, one from Ohio and another from Texas.
The disrupters barged into the site of the Democratic gathering in Harlem, where Mayor Eric Adams delivered an impassioned speech – before they were given the boot.
While protesters were escorted out of the main rally, which wasn’t attended by Harris or her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the demonstration took an ugly turn in front of a restaurant where up to 25 attendees stopped afterward for an after party.
The angry mob of around 50 protesters stormed into the restaurant Bird in Hand at Broadway and West 146th Street as stunned patrons looked on, according to footage. Other videos showed cops taking rabble-rousers into custody as a crowd circled the police. Whistles and horns sounded, and smoke bombs were also set off during the brouhaha.
Ayesha Schmitt, 27, of Astoria, who was slapped with a desk appearance ticket for resisting arrest, said she felt “a moral obligation to protest.”
“We are currently witnessing a genocide happening, where every day I open up my phone and I see photos of children blown to bits,” Schmitt, who declined to reveal where she works, told The Post Thursday.
She said that the cops who descended on the scene “escalated with violence far too much.”
“They were kettling protesters and pushing them on and off the sidewalk,” she claimed. “I got pushed in the breast, then they tried to rip off my hijab, my religious covering. They choked me a little bit.”
Joshua Santiago, 29, a music teacher from the Bronx who was charged with resisting arrest, claimed the “Zionists” – referring to the attendees at the Democratic Party event – “were kind of egging us on a little bit.”
“We definitely made a lot of noise. We found out where the restaurant was, where their afterparty was going to be. The people ahead of me, in the restaurant disrupting the afterparty, were forcibly removed from the restaurant,” he said, noting he didn’t go into the eatery himself.
Santiago was also present at a Columbia University protest over the spring, where he described himself as “advocating an anarcho communism” and toted flags supporting “Christian anarcho-communism” and Puerto Rican independence, according to a student news blog for the Ivy League university.
He said he and others intervened Wednesday night as Schmitt was busted.
“It was an assault,” he claimed. “She was shoved and dragged. The officer took out his baton to beat her and we all acted out against that.
“I ran to her aid and stated, ‘I am not putting my hands on you’ and I crossed my arms and I asked ‘Why have you arrested this woman? Why are you physically assaulting this woman?’”
He said one officer warned him to get back, but he “stayed firm” as cops then grabbed him and cuffed him.
Santiago, who said he suffers from fibromyalgia, recalled telling cops that they were arresting a “disabled man,” but “one of them literally said ‘we do not care.’”
“I was there because I believe in the freedom of all people, including Palestinians,” he said. “Until all of us are free, none of us are free.”
Brian Felicetta, owner of Bird in Hand restaurant, said the protesters caused a few thousand dollars in damage.
“It’s mostly just you know tables, chairs, flower boxes, the string lights so just when people started jumping up on things and stuff like that,” he said.
— Additional reporting by David Propper
