NYC Washington Square Park vigil for Ayatollah Khamenei turns violent

Chaos erupted in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park as a vigil mourning the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, descended into violence Friday, with video showing a man being punched to the ground as he tried to tear up a poster of the late Iranian leader.

A video shows a man trying to remove a poster of the dictator – killed last week in an Israeli airstrike – when a man wearing a SpongeBob sweatshirt punched him in the face, sending him to the ground.

Others began fighting, prompting the intervention of the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

As the fight unfolded, the crowd could be heard shouting abuse.

A memorial table in New York for Khamenei, accused of murdering thousands of Iranians. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

Several people were filmed being arrested by police.

The vigil included a makeshift memorial table covered in Palestinian kaffiyehs, candles and photos of Khamenei, with one observer describing the scene as the “People’s Republic of New York.”

Meanwhile, nearby counter-protesters waved Iranian, American and Israeli flags and chanted “USA.”

Khomeini’s supporters waved a large flag bearing his portrait. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

In a flyer announcing the event, organizers called Khamenei’s death an “assassination by U.S. government forces.”

Saturday’s attack in downtown Tehran, which killed Khamenei and other regime leaders, was carried out by the Israeli army.

U.S. officials have denied any involvement.

“Throughout his life, Khamenei defended the dignity of the Iranian people and firmly opposed Zionism. [sic] and the American criminal regime,” organizers wrote on the flyer. “Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the US-backed puppet government, the Iranian people have resisted Western domination and exploitation of their land, labor and resources.

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“At that time, Iran severed all ties with the Zionist regime. [sic] Palestinian regime and was the first country to host a Palestinian embassy on its soil, while materially supporting the Palestinian resistance and national liberation movements across the world. »

Among Khamenei’s supporters was a group of counterprotesters who criticized the vigil while waving American flags and pre-1979 Iranian Lion and Sun flags.

“We’re here to show everyone that Iranians don’t like the regime,” one man at the vigil, Fox News contributor Nicole Parker, said on “Hannity.”

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Protesters and counter-protesters gathered Friday afternoon in Washington Square Park in New York. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

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“My family is in Iran, but everyone is fighting against the regime,” another woman told Parker. “They are happy with it, they want this war – this war is not about [the] Iranian people, this war is against the Islamic Republic. »

Azziana Solomon of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

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