The police in Manhattan arrested six people on Saturday, including one who they said threw smoking projectiles filled with bolts and screws, during a clash between far-right protesters and counterprotesters that turned violent outside Gracie Mansion.
The turbulent scene in one of New York City’s swankiest neighborhoods began with a plan by the far-right provocateur Jake Lang for a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” demonstration near the Upper East Side home of New York’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
Mr. Lang showed up with a goat and about 20 followers, who were wearing American flag hats and “Freedom” sweatshirts, echoing the slogan on a shirt worn by the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. As the day wore on, and the crowd of counterprotesters shouting at Mr. Lang grew to more than 100, tensions swelled.
One of Mr. Lang’s fellow protesters sprayed mace at a group of counterprotesters, sending some doubling over in tears. Fistfights broke out among the crowd, and raw eggs flew through the air.
Then a counterprotester threw two smoking objects, one of which landed on East 87th Street in flames, prompting protesters to run for cover.
The devices, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, were “a bit smaller than a football” and appeared to be jars wrapped in tape and containing nuts, bolts, screws and a “hobby fuse.” The bomb squad had not yet determined whether they were live explosive devices or dummies, Ms. Tisch said.
The police arrested six people, including Emir Balat, 18, the counterprotester who they said threw the devices; Ibrahim Nikk, 19, who supplied one of them; and a man whom a law enforcement official identified as Ian McGinnis, 21, who pepper-sprayed the counterprotesters.
Charges against Mr. Balat, of Langhorne, Pa., and Mr. Nikk had not been determined as of Saturday evening, pending police analysis of the devices, a former senior law enforcement official said. Mr. McGinnis was expected to be charged with reckless endangerment, the former official said.
The mayor and his wife were not home at the time of the protest, Ms. Tisch said. Joe Calvello, a spokesman for the mayor, called Mr. Lang’s event “despicable and Islamophobic.”
Even after the smoke cleared, the chaos and shouting continued. Drums were banged. Someone threw a hot dog. Locals strolling to brunch and the gym took cover inside a Gristedes supermarket, many of them uncertain what had prompted the protests.
It was a strained moment filled with tensions both national and hyperlocal. Mr. Lang, a pardoned participant in the Jan. 6 riot, recently organized a counterprotest to demonstrations against the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis that descended into violent scuffles. Earlier this week, the conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg described Mayor Mamdani as a “jihadist” and a “radical Islam cockroach.” And on Friday evening, Mr. Lang showed up at a vigil for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s deceased supreme leader, in Washington Square Park, prompting more altercations.
Near the site of Saturday’s protest, some locals were rattled by the unrest. Inside the Gristedes, Kathryn Morlet said she had been trying to have a calm Saturday morning in her yoga class. Corinne Shaw was walking her son to the library so he could start a report on sparrows when they wound up in the swirl of confusion. The streets were packed with joggers, strollers and vexed tourists.
But plenty of passers-by — some with a dose of New York City bravado — said that a certain amount of commotion comes with living near the mayor’s residence.
“Antifascist protesting is probably more important than my gym routine,” said Morgan Magid, 29.
The owner of the Mansion diner, Phil Philips, who said he had served many mayors but not yet Mr. Mamdani, stood on the corner of York Avenue and East 86th Street watching the protests.
“I serve cheeseburgers,” Mr. Philips said. “I don’t do politics.”
Chelsia Rose Marcius and Andy Newman contributed reporting.
Emma Goldberg is a Times reporter who writes about political subcultures and the way we live now.
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