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Fight Outside Barclays Center Forces Show to be Canceled

By Janet Upadhye | September 16, 2014 9:56am
 A fight broke out near a BEAT Festival performance in the Daily News Plaza outside Barclays Center.
A fight broke out near a BEAT Festival performance in the Daily News Plaza outside Barclays Center.
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Elsa/Getty Images

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — A police officer was "roughed up" and a teenage girl arrested after a community dance performance outside the Barclays Center turned violent Monday afternoon, police said.

A 16-year-old girl was arrested for resisting arrest after a fight broke out among a group of more than 75 youths who were hanging out in Daily News Plaza, outside the venue where a BEAT Festival performance by the Bed-Stuy Veterans was taking place on a nearby stage, according to police and witnesses.

The violence prompted festival organizers to cancel the show saying it was very "scary."

The teenagers were not involved with the festival, organizers and witnesses said.

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Performer Justin Quinones, also known as "Rain," attempted to stop the fight from the stage, asking the teens and audience members to "calm down" repeatedly from the microphone as people began to run and scream.

"I was trying to get people to relax but then they turned my mic off," he said.

A police officer was "roughed up" while attempting to break up the fight, according to an NYPD spokesman.

The officer was not hospitalized, police said.

"The kids were very rowdy and very disrespectful, I saw a cop get punched by one of them in the face," said Luna Eien-Anime, who was scheduled to perform after the Veterans.

"We were all surprised by it," said BEAT Festival director Stephen Shelley. "Unfortunately the show was canceled."

Police attempted to clear the area after the fight.

Some weren't happy with the police response to the fight.

Quinones, who said he witnessed the entire incident from the stage, said the police pushed the teens and looked as if they were fighting them. He called the response "brutal."

"Our show's ruined. We came out here for the kids and now we saw police fight kids," he said.

Eien-Anime also said the police response was over the top.

"I don't think police officers should put their hands on kids," she said. "They should handcuff them and be on their way."