Binghamton Police Busy With Fire at Rec. Park and Vandalism

Binghamton Police report “lots of broken windows” around downtown and the west side following what had been largely peaceful protests May 31 but would offer few details other than that.

Crowds gathered shortly after noon in front of Binghamton High School and near the Court Street Bridge in the area of the Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior Promenade to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white Minneapolis Police Officer last week and an overall continuing issue of racism around the country.

After marching down Court Street the protesters joined to head west on Main Street to Recreation Park on Binghamton's West Side to chants of “I can’t breathe.” And “No justice, no peace.”

During the day, there were no visible signs of violence from the demonstrators, many appearing to be of high school or college age.

Following the gathering at Recreation Park the crowd retraced its steps and headed back through downtown Binghamton. Binghamton Police blocked off a portion of Main Street and the intersections on the West Side that were on the route to Recreation Park.

After dark, there were numerous incidents of vandalism around Binghamton but police would not say if they thought the incidents were directly related to the protests.

At around 1 a.m., firefighters were called to Recreation Park, the site of the largest of the demonstrations during the day, for fire set to the accessible wooden playground.  The fire was knocked down in a few minutes but crews remained on the scene for clean up.  There were also reports of damage to the windows on the structure surrounding the carousel but no damage to the historic merry-go-round. Windows were also reportedly broken at several businesses.

Binghamton police would not say if there were any arrests associated with the protests and would not elaborate on the extent of damage to businesses or if any items had been stolen.