Black protester arrested after threatening to burn down New York City

A black protester was arrested in Zuccotti Park 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 that he would torch the city during an upcoming mass protest posted online, police said. “On the 17th (of November), we’re going to burn New York City to the f---ing ground,” an angry Tinsley told a crowd of demonstrators in the video. “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 and collared him, 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. It’s not the first time that Tinsley has been busted since the Occupied Wall Street movement started in September 2011. In October 2011, Tinsley was arrested 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.