New York City protesters arrested in connection to defacing property with anti-police graffiti

Six people were arrested Thursday night in New York City in connection with defacing the USS Maine National Monument with anti-police graffiti, one of several such incidents of vandalism in the Manhattan borough.

The monument is on Columbus Circle, on the southern edge of Central Park.

The protesters were arrested on charges ranging from assault to damage to public property, according to ABC-7 TV.

"We respect's everyone right to peacefully protest, but vandalism is not part of peaceful protest," the New York City Police Department tweet, amid a week of high-charges police-related events, including the murder conviction Tuesday of ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the 2020 death of George Floyd.

The same day, a Columbia, Ohio, teen was fatally shot by a police officer as she attacked another female teen with a knife, as seen in several videos.

The protesters in New York started in Greenwich Village and marched north through Manhattan, arriving about about 10 p.m. at Columbus Circle. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio said vandalism is "the wrong way to go about" protesting," the TV station also reports.

"It's not legal, and there will be consequences," he said. "You want to make change, go out and protest peacefully. You want to make change, work with other leaders and organizations to achieve it.

Other reports of vandalism in the city include graffiti sprayed on a transit bus, two restaurants and a construction site in the midtown Chelsea neighborhood and on the the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument at Grand Army Plaza on the city's East Side.