A wealthy college student is among the eight people arrested on rioting charges after participants in a Black Lives Matter protest went on a rampage in Manhattan, causing some $100,000 in damage to businesses.
Clara Kraebber, 20, was among those arrested after the vandalism spree on Friday in the Flatiron District, where demonstrators were protesting over the death of Daniel Prude in upstate Rochester.
All were charged with rioting, and some were additionally charged with weapons and burglary tool possession.
Kraebber declined to comment on the charges to the New York Post when reached by phone at her family's second home in Connecticut, saying: 'No — not right now — I don't want to talk about it.'
Clara Kraebber, 20, was among those arrested after a vandalism spree on Friday in the Flatiron District. She is an undergraduate at Rice and comes from a wealthy Upper East Side family
At least eight people were arrested Friday evening after a protest through Manhattan turned destructive. Police say a small group broke away from the march to smash windows
Of the eight arrested, five were men and two were women. Two of the arrests are from out of state, including one from Portland, Oregon and one from Iowa.
Kraebber, an undergraduate at Rice University. Her father is a psychiatrist who teaches at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, and her mother is an architect at a prestigious Manhattan firm.
The family in 2016 purchased a $1.8 million apartment on the Upper East Side, and also owns a home with four fireplaces in Connecticut.
'I wonder how her rich parents feel about their daughter. How would they feel if they graffitied their townhouse?' one law enforcement source told the Post.
'This girl should be the poster child for white privilege, growing up on the Upper East Side and another home in Connecticut,' the source said. 'This is the height of hypocrisy.'
Friday's demonstration was organized by groups calling themselves the 'New Afrikan Black Panther Party' and the 'Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement.'
Police say that demonstrators started out at Foley Square, where they lit trash cans on fire and scrawled graffiti including the word 'Abolition'.
The masked and black-clad group then moved north. Video shows them carrying banners reading 'Death to America' and 'Free All Prisoners' as the chant 'every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground'
Police say eight businesses, including a Starbucks, several banks and Duane Reade, had their windows shattered. Three buildings were also vandalized with graffiti. The estimated damage nears $100,000.
'It's disheartening,' Jason Liang, a worker at one of the damaged stores, told WNBC-TV. 'You have the right to do whatever you want, but why do you have to hurt other people's property?
Most businesses affected were in the vicinity of 25th Street and Madison Ave in Flatiron.
The demonstration came in response to video showing the arrested of Prude in March, which was recently made public.
Prude's death after his brother called for help for his erratic behavior
Policy body camera video shows officers covering Prude's head with a 'spit hood,' designed to protect police from bodily fluids, then pressing his face into the pavement for two minutes.
Prude died a week later after he was taken off life support.
The Monroe County medical examiner listed the manner of death as homicide caused by 'complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.'
Excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, were contributing factors, the report said.
A police internal affairs investigation cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing, concluding in April that their 'actions and conduct displayed when dealing with Prude appear to be appropriate and consistent with their training.'
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