The cops raided an Independent Anarchist Media Collective space at 13 Thames Art Space in Brooklyn and arrested two group members Tuesday.
According to the "I AM Collective" statement, the NYPD entered the Bushwick based art and performance space without a warrant.
“Two plainclothes detectives entered first, followed quickly by a Lieutenant and vans full of blue shirt officers,” the statement reads. “After corralling everyone present in the back room, they searched the space and detained two members of the collective.”
A man who identified himself as, "With the Independent" caught some of the raid on video which was posted on YouTube. Two men are seen being handcuffed.
NYPD spokesman Sergeant Carlos Nieves told NBCNewYork.com that the two individuals were arrested for outstanding Criminal Court summonses, but didn't elaborate on the nature of the offenses.
The raid comes just days before the I AM Collective’s Fourth Annual NYC Anarchist Film Festival, which had been organized in the raided space.
The group has said “regardless of these attacks,” the film festival will go on as planned on April 16 at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village.
“The voice of decentralized creative communities will not be silenced by police repression,” the statement said. “They cannot raid us, because we are everywhere.”
