A protester was arrested in Zuccotti Park Wednesday after he threatened to fire bomb the city — and his rant went viral on YouTube, police said.
Nkrumah Tinsley, 29, was busted after cops saw a video of him claiming he would torch the city during Thursday’s mass protest posted online, police said.
“On the 17th (of Nov.), we’re going to burn New York City to the f---ing ground,” an angry Tinsley told a crowd of demonstrators in the video posted on Tuesday.
“In a few days, you’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s.”
When officers from the NYPD’s intelligence division saw the video, they immediately began working on trying to identify the raging man, police said.
“We didn’t want him out there [Thursday]. We wanted him in our custody,” said Paul Browne, top spokesman for the NYPD. “He was specific as to date, location and method for the fire bombing ...maybe it was just a rant, but we didn’t want to take that chance.”
Cops later spotted Tinsley at Zuccotti Park Wednesday and collared him about 5 p.m., police said. He was charged with making terroristic threats.
Tinsley’s parents described their son as mentally ill and recently started leaving the family’s University Heights, Bronx, home to support protesters downtown.
“I was really happy — he was going meeting people and talking to others, instead of sitting in his room talking to himself,” said his father, James Jacob, 66.
Jacob said his son got too excited within the crowd and understood the arrest.
“He was just running his mouth,” he said. “He’s got to learn. He’s got to pay for what he did.”
Wednesday night, many Occupied Wall Street demonstrators said they would never support Tinsley’s methods.
“[Tuesday\], a guy was handing out flyers to make Molotov coctails,” said Storm Shimp, 18, of Lancaster, Pa. “A group of us went up to him and said, ‘We don’t want that here — no one is going to take that from you.’”
“He’s absolutely speaking for himself,” said Jorden Eck, 20, a protester from upstate Binghamton. “It goes against the ideals of our movement.”
It’s not the first time Tinsley has been busted since the Occupied Wall Street movement started in Sept.
In October, Tinsley was arrested on Barclay St. for punching a cop in the face and kicking him on the ground during a protest. He was charged with felony assault for the attack and later released without bail.
He was still waiting to be arraigned on Wednesday night.
With Kerry Wills
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