In Brooklyn, the protests that have filled the streets over the last few weeks,

they've often coalesced in front of a sports arena, Barclay Center.

Especially in the first few days of protest, the plaza out front would fill up, usually in the afternoon, with people carrying signs and chanting slogans.

All kinds of people, white, black, kids, adults.

Elected officials ended up here, too. New York State

Senator Zelnor Myrie wound up at Barclays back in May. He said he was there because he's a

black man, but he was also hoping to keep the crowd calm. I remember trying to pick the attire that I was going to wear

and very intentionally choosing my neon, yellow, green shirt

with my name and title on the back, in case things escalated

and hoping to be a force of de-escalation if things were to take that course.

So it was all good until about 8 p.m. when the cops started to move people away from the protest.

And they started to do it forcefully.

This was before there was any kind of curfew in New York. And I remember obeying the orders. In fact,

I was talking to some of the other protesters saying, let's move back,

let's not have a confrontation here. And whilst doing that, I started getting hit in my back with the bicycles that some of the officers had in their hands. And so I turn around and I'm like, look, we're doing exactly what you have asked us to do.

And it was at that moment that I got pepper sprayed directly into my eyes. I'm crying out. And as I'm

crying out, I hear a number of officers say cuff him, cuff him, cuff him. There's a photo of the

second this happened, of Zellnor crying out in anguish. His eyes clamped shut. In that moment, any wrong move that I made,

and this was going through my mind, could have had disastrous consequences. Anything that could

have been interpreted as me being resistant or me being threatening could have resulted in serious injury

for me or even worse, the loss of my life. And all of this is going through my head.

How did you get out of that situation? One of the higher-ups recognized who I was when they

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