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NYPD Issues Statement After MSNBC Host Falsely Claims Arrest Was Kidnapping

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  July 29, 2020 8:40 AM

The New York Police Department issued a statement about an arrest made on a wanted suspect after MSNBC’s Chris Hayes shared the video on Twitter, falsely claiming it was a “kidnapping.”

In the video, plainclothes officers (who are wearing vests) stop in an unmarked van to make an arrest while clearly identified NYPD bike police surround the vehicle.

Protesters described the scene as a “kidnapping” while progressive lawmakers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “Our civil liberties are on brink. This is not a drill.”

“There is no excuse for snatching women off the street and throwing them into unmarked vans,” she added. 

Hayes shared the video stating, “this is…kidnapping.”

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The NYPD was quick to correct such false claims.

“In regard to a video on social media that took place at 2 Ave & 25 St, a woman taken into custody in an unmarked van was wanted for damaging police cameras during 5 separate criminal incidents in & around City Hall Park,” the department said on Twitter. “The arresting officers were assaulted with rocks & bottles.”

The NYPD News account explained that the officers were from the Warrant Squad, which uses unmarked vehicles “to effectively locate wanted suspects.”

“When she was placed into the Warrant Squad’s unmarked gray minivan, it was behind a cordon of NYPD bicycle cops in bright yellow and blue uniform shirts there to help effect the arrest,” the department said.