NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter was arrested for unlawful assembly during a protest in Lower Manhattan on Saturday.
Chiara de Blasio, 25, was among at least 100 other protesters who had refused NYPD orders to leave the roadway at 12th Street and Broadway, just blocks away from Union Square, around 10:30 p.m.
She was issued a desk appearance ticket and released, police sources told WCBS 880.
The New York Post first reported the arrest.
The mayor addressed her arrest during a news conference Monday.
"I love my daughter deeply, I honor her. She's such a good human being, she only wants to do good in the world, she wants to see a better and more peaceful world. She believes a lot of change is needed," de Blasio said. "I'm proud of her that she cares so much and was willing to go out there and do something about it."
De Blasio said he found out his daughter had been arrested because there was a media inquiry about it from the press.
"The media knew about this before I knew about it," de Blasio said.
He said if he had known his daughter had been arrested, he would've been the first to let the public know.
After learing of her arrest, he immediately reached out to his daughter for her to recount the story to him and he said she told him that she was acting peacefully at the time of her arrest.
"She believes that everything she did was in the spirit of peaceful, respectful protest and the bottom line is I will let her speak for herself in any way that she wants to, but I admire that she was out there trying to change something that she thought was unjust and doing it in a peaceful manner," de Blasio said. "I respect my daughter, I honor her and I know her heart. I know she appreciates humanity, every kind of humanity. She appreciates the fact that people serve us, she appreciats the fact that we need to change this world and she in her own way has tried to do something about it. And for that I want to just tell her how much I love and respect and admire her."
The NYPD made nearly 350 arrests on Saturday after hours of unrest as protests over the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis stretched all across the five boroughs.
Late night protests ravaged the Union Square area, where demonstrators left behind melted trash cans, and vandalized sidewalks and buildings.