Polish farmers march in Warsaw against EU climate policies and the country's pro-EU leader

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Tens of thousands of disgruntled Polish farmers marched through downtown Warsaw on Friday to protest the European Union’s climate policies and oppose the pro-EU government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The march under the slogan “Down with the Green Deal” was organized by Solidarity, a farmers' trade union that is strongly opposed to the EU’s farming policies, in particular a policy known as the Green Deal which aims to make agriculture more climate friendly. The farmers say it interferes with their work and imposes high costs on them.

"We are protesting because we don’t want to become slaves on our own land,” said dairy farmer Grazyna Gasowska from eastern Poland.

“According to the Green Deal we are supposed to grow what they tell us to, when they tell us to," Gasowska said as she held a national white-and-red flag. "All those diversification requirements are very difficult for the farmers.”

The noisy march stopped at the EU Warsaw office and then at parliament.

“Let Brussels eat worms, we prefer pork chops and potatoes," said one banner, referring to a general belief that the EU will advise eating insects and worms rather than cattle meat.

The demonstration came as Poland’s political parties campaign ahead of elections next month for the European Parliament. The protest was supported by Polish right-wing opposition party Law and Justice, which held power from 2015 until late last year and is looking to regain political momentum.

With an eye to the election, Tusk on Friday announced a reshuffle of his Cabinet to replace four ministers running for the European Parliament next month.

The changes are also seen as a chance to bring new energy into Tusk’s government, which took office in December and embarked on deep reforms in many areas, including justice, foreign policy and the media.

“Today comes the time of bringing order and this is one of the reasons for which we jointly decided to have these changes," Tusk said.

He said there will be more changes in the future that would be dictated by the “interest of the state.”

Tusk’s pro-European Union government has embarked on a wide reversal of the policies of the Law and Justice party, which put Poland on a collision course with the 27-member EU during its administration. Tusk's team is taking steps to free the judiciary and the state media from the political control that Law and Justice tried to impose, and bring to account those responsible for mismanagement and loss of funds by state-owned companies.

Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who spearheaded a change in management at the state TV, radio and news agency, and the minister of the interior and administration, Marcin Kierwinski, were replaced. The ministers for state assets, Borys Budka, and for development and technology, Krzysztof Hetman, were also leaving.

The new interior minister is Tomasz Siemoniak, who served as the defense minister in Tusk's previous government in 2011 to 2015. He retains his job as coordinator of special services at a time of Russia's war on Poland's neighbor, Ukraine.

The culture minister is now Hanna Wroblewska, an art historian. Jakub Jaworowski, an economist and financier, was put in charge of state assets, where auditing is currently taking place and uncovering glaring cases of mismanagement under the previous government. Krzysztof Paszyk, an experienced politician and lawmaker, is the new minister of development and technology.

They will take office after formal appointment by President Andrzej Duda on Monday.

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This story corrects the spelling of the interior minister's last name to Siemoniak.

Polish farmers and other protesters gather in downtown Warsaw to protest the European Union's climate policies and Poland's pro-EU government, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Polish farmers and other protesters gather in downtown Warsaw to protest the European Union's climate policies and Poland's pro-EU government, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Polish farmers and other protesters gather in downtown Warsaw to protest the European Union's climate policies and Poland's pro-EU government, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Polish farmers and other protesters gather in downtown Warsaw to protest the European Union's climate policies and Poland's pro-EU government, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

FILE - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk talks with reporters outside the West Wing of the White House after meeting with President Joe Biden Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Washington. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday, May 10, 2024 announced changes in his Cabinet to replace four ministers running for the European Parliament next month. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the police department's response to a pro-Palestinian street demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend, calling video of officers repeatedly punching men lying prone on the ground an “isolated incident.”

“Look at that entire incident,” Adams said on the “Mornings on 1” program on the local cable news channel NY1. He complained that protesters who marched through Brooklyn's Bay Ridge section on Saturday had blocked traffic, spit at officers and, in once instance, climbed on top of a moving city bus. “I take my hat off to the Police Department, how they handled an unruly group of people.”

“People want to take that one isolated incident that we’re investigating. They need to look at the totality of what happened in that bedroom community,” Adams added.

Footage shot by bystanders and independent journalists shows police officers intercepting a march in the street, shoving participants toward the sidewalk, and then grabbing some people in the crowd and dragging them down to the asphalt. Officers can be seen repeatedly punching at least three protesters, in separate incidents, as they lay pinned on the ground.

A video shot by videographer Peter Hambrecht and posted on X shows an officer in a white shirt punching a protester while holding his throat. Hambrecht said the arrests took place after police told the crowd to disperse.

“They were aware they might get arrested, but many times people use that to justify the beating which is obviously ridiculous,” Hambrecht told The Associated Press in a text message.

Independent journalist Katie Smith separately recorded video of an officer unleashing a volley of punches on a man pinned to the ground, hitting him at least five times with a closed fist.

At least 41 people were arrested, police said.

The NYPD later released its own video showing misbehavior by protesters, including people throwing empty water bottles at officers, splashing them with liquids and lighting flares and smoke bombs. It also showed one protester sitting on the roof of a moving transit bus waving a Palestinian flag.

“We will not accept the narrative that persons arrested were victims, nor are we going to allow illegal behavior,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said in a statement on X.

The NYPD agreed to change the way it handles public protests last summer after it had to pay out at least $35 million to settle claims of police misconduct during the large protests against racial injustice after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

The legal settlement required the department to reduce the number of officers it sent to most protests. It also required police to allow most demonstrations to take place on public streets, even if they temporarily block traffic, as long as they are nonviolent and don't involve a threat of major property damage. Police can still step in under the settlement to redirect protest marches to prevent them from blocking access to bridges and tunnels, or places like hospitals and police precincts. But the written agreement says “the fact that some individuals in a crowd have engaged in unlawful conduct does not by itself provide grounds” to end demonstrations and order a crowd to disperse.

The City Council member who represents Bay Ridge, Justin Brannan, said the demonstration broken up by police was one held annually in the neighborhood to protest the displacement of Palestinian people following the establishment of Israel in 1948.

“Bay Ridge is home to the largest Palestinian community in NYC,” Brannan wrote on X. “There has been a Nakba Day demonstration here every year for the past decade without incident. I saw no evidence of actions by protestors today that warranted such an aggressive response from NYPD.”

New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman criticized the arrests and called them an escalation of police tactics against demonstrators.

“The aggressive escalation by the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group yesterday in Bay Ridge was a violation of New Yorkers’ right to speak out and risks chilling political expression," Lieberman said, naming the NYPD unit that is often called to protests.

FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams gestures as he attends a news conference at City Hall in New York, March 19, 2024. Adams defended the police department’s response Monday, May 20, 2024, to a pro-Palestinian street demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend, calling video of officers repeatedly punching men lying prone on the ground an “isolated incident.” (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)