‘The tension in New York is palpable... small businesses and high-end boutiques are boarded up, expecting the worst’

Accounts of violent and hostile kettling are in every news outlet’s coverage of protests that have taken place in Manhattan this week — although the New York Police Department’s newly-instated chief of patrol Juanita Holmes denies use of the move, and told a press conference that protestors are given three chances to leave a scene. However, the viral videos of stand-offs circulating on social media paint a different picture.

While they became somewhat less of a front page news item with so much else on the agenda, protests in New York haven’t stopped in the months since a civil rights movement galvanised the country. The general unrest and dissatisfaction has spawned and spurred on countless new activist groups, like the omnipresent Riders 4 Rights, and a rally has taken place every single Thursday night at the iconic Stonewall Inn. And this week, there is arguably more to passionately scream and shout about than ever before.

While the most fraught presidential race in memory remains ongoing, for now, New Yorkers are still focused on demonstrating peacefully against pervasive issues like police violence, racism, trans rights, and bodily autonomy. “No cops, no KKK, no fascist USA,” is an audible refrain, while other protestors chant “The whole world is watching” at crowds of police who far outnumber them, looking primed for war in Iron Man-esque riot gear.

Nicole Walsh, a Dublin native who witnessed passing protests from her Gramercy Park apartment window this week, said: “Demonstrators were loud but really peaceful; they were even holding up peace signs. Their chants were, ‘I don’t see a riot’ and ‘Marching for demolition.’”

She added, “The police presence was nothing less than intense. There were well over 30 NYPD vans following the demonstrators, as well as riot police and police on bikes.”

Although to say it’s all innocent and peaceful would ignore a widely-condemned incident in the West Village on Wednesday, involving a 24-year-old woman spitting in a police officer’s face, before he shoved her and reportedly broke her arm in retaliation. On that night alone, there were 60 arrests in the city, and several weapons were seized.

The tension and animosity is certainly palpable and mounting once again, and the general consensus among people is that when the result of the election is officially called, protests – from the left and right – are likely to take on a whole new guise.

After the year that was, visual triggers are also implying we’re on the verge of another unforgettable moment in history. Like other cities across America, both small businesses and high-end boutiques are boarded up as if expecting the worst.

There’s even increased security at commercial office buildings, adding a jarring element to an otherwise routine workday. While New York managed to flatten the curve and has not regressed into another pandemic-related lockdown, the fear of the unknown is exceeding the anxiety we already faced in spring. In a cruel twist of irony, we banded together with the common goal of slowing the spread of Covid-19, only to have divisive beliefs threaten to tear us apart again.

Particularly as an immigrant, when you obtain your news and information in an echo chamber and listen predominantly to what your inner circles say, it’s easy to underestimate the colossal support that Donald Trump has amassed in the last four years. It’s even easier to assume that his fanbase is confined to, quote unquote, middle America. The fact that more white women hedged their bets on Trump this time around sure generated headlines (and ‘Karen’ memes), but it was under-reported that the Black and Latino vote for Trump also went up.

Of course, New York votes as blue as the sky but Staten Island and many areas of Long Island and New York State overwhelmingly opted to keep The Donald in the Oval Office. The shock expressed by New York City dwellers that it wasn’t a landslide in favour of Joe Biden reveals how naive people are towards the pervasive, deep-seated divide and how abandoned and disillusioned so many feel with modern American life – regardless of age, race, religion, socio-economic status or education level.

To bring it back to a large cohort of my aforementioned echo chamber, those of us on temporary work visas and green cards watching from the sidelines and wondering if we’ll ever be able to vote ourselves, there’s another prevalent issue on our minds: the fate of our immigration status.

Eva Murphy Ryan, from Dublin, agrees that it’s not only the unrest and sense of looming trouble that’s making her feel anxious and tired this week; it’s a build-up of the last four years.

“The last few days have been incredibly intense, I've never experienced anticipation like this,” she says. ”Trump has made changes to the visa process that have a huge impact on anyone looking to renew work visas. Waking up every day for four years not knowing what might have been tweeted overnight and not knowing what new measures might be announced – it takes its toll.”