The head of a Hamas-cheering radical activist group was among the 50 protesters arrested when cops thwarted unruly demonstrations in Manhattan and cleared out an anti-Israel encampment at the Fashion Institute of Technology overnight, The Post has learned.
Manolo De Los Santos, 35, was spotted being cuffed and hauled away by two NYPD officers in riot helmets as protesters marched through the streets towards the West 27th Street campus on Tuesday evening.
A shouting De Los Santos, who had a Palestinian scarf draped around his neck, was slapped with a summons for disorderly conduct after being nabbed in the vicinity of West 14th Street.
Having only been hit with a summons — which doesn’t even rise to a misdemeanor — De Los Santos is unlikely to face any repercussions for repeat incidents, despite being previously arrested on similar circumstances at least once this year back in January.
Police started monitoring the FIT encampment roughly two hours before they eventually swooped in and arrested more than two dozen.
Cops moved in roughly 10 minutes after warning those who failed to vacate the Chelsea campus that they would be charged with trespassing.
In total, police cuffed 50 protesters during Tuesday’s unrest, law enforcement sources said.
De Los Santos is the leader of the Midtown-based nonprofit The People’s Forum (TPF) that urged protesters at Columbia University to channel the deadly Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 before they violently stormed Hamilton Hall last week.
His TPF group blasted out video of his arrest on social media, urging followers to gather at the NYPD’s headquarters to protest his and others’ detainments.
“Multiple leaders of the ALL OUT FOR RAFAH march in NYC were arrested by the NYPD while they led over a thousand pro-Palestine demonstrators in the streets of Manhattan,” the group wrote on X.
“We will not stand for the intimidation of the NYPD. The more they try to silence us the louder we will be! Head to jail support at 1 Police Plaza NOW!”
De Los Santos, who spent “years” in the socialist haven of Cuba, has made a career as an agitator spurring protests on the streets of the Big Apple.
As TPF’s executive director and de facto mouthpiece, De Los Santos has repeatedly spouted anti-Israel rhetoric of late – including hailing Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack as “heroic” and calling for Israel to be “erased from history.”
His encounter with cops during the FIT encampment bust is just his latest brush with the law.
De Los Santos was among the 10 protest leaders cops busted on Jan. 27 when hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators descended on Manhattan — partially blocking the Brooklyn Bridge and attempting to “flood” JFK Airport in Queens.
Additional reporting by Alex Oliveira
