#George Floyd protesters arrested in NYC shortly after curfew

George Floyd protesters were arrested in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday night shortly after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew.

A group of marchers were on the West Side Highway near the entrance to the Battery Tunnel after the curfew went into effect, according to social media footage.

It wasn’t immediately clear what led to the arrests, which according to one witness amount to about a dozen.

But some protesters got into a brief standoff with the police on the road.

“Why are you yelling at them?” one protester could be heard telling other demonstrators, referring to the police.

“Just keep walking, keep walking,” the man says.

Meanwhile, around the same time as the West Side Highway confrontation, a mass of protesters from Brooklyn gained access to the Manhattan Bridge.

But they were met on the Manhattan side by a large police presence barricading the entrance into the borough.

“F–k your curfew,” protesters shouted, as police played a recording announcing the 8 p.m. citywide curfew.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was in Manhattan beyond the barricades when marchers were closing in.

“So far it’s been a good night,” de Blasio said on CNN from near the Manhattan Bridge, “much calmer situation right now, at least at this moment.”

The mayor also said the city beefed up its police presence Tuesday night, without revealing how many more officers were out patrolling.

Tuesday night was the first night of the earlier curfew, which will last throughout the week.

By 9:30 p.m., there were still several rallies across the city and the NYPD did not appear to be strictly enforcing the mandate.

But de Blasio said, from what he observed, people were voluntarily obeying the decree.

“At 8 [p.m.], when I was driving around, people were scurrying to get home,” he said on CNN.