This is the moment a high-ranking member of the New York Police Department kneeled with George Floyd protesters on Monday night.

Terence Monahan, the chief of the department, joined protesters near Washington Square Park in Manhattan after calling on the gathering to stop the violence that has marred otherwise peaceful protests across the country.

“We all know Minnesota was wrong,'' Monahan said, referring to Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after he was kneeled on by a cop on a week ago. 

“They were arrested, which they should be,” he added about the officers involved in the killing.

However, the violence “has got to end,” he said. 

Pointing to the assembled cops, Monahan said: “There is not a police officer over here that thinks Minnesota was justified. 

“We cannot be fighting. We have to live here. This is our home,” he added, before sharing a hug with a protester. 

Monahan’s gesture came hours after New York City imposed a late-night curfew starting at 11pm as officials tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent another night of destruction amid the protests.

As the deadline to get off the streets approached, bands of protesters marched through Manhattan and Brooklyn, and police simultaneously responded to numerous reports of roving groups of people smashing their way into shops and emptying them of merchandise.

People rushed into a Nike store in Manhattan and carried out armloads of clothing. Near Rockefeller Center, storefront windows were smashed and multiple people arrested. Wreckage littered the inside of an AT&T store.

Video posted on social media showed some protesters arguing with people breaking windows, urging them to stop, but instances of vandalism and smash-and-grab thefts mounted as the night deepened.

“We worked hard to build up the business and within a second someone does this,” said the owner of a looted Manhattan smoke shop, who identified himself only by the name Harri. “Really bad.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the outbreaks of violence the previous two evenings — which left stores ransacked and police vehicles burned — gave them no choice to impose a curfew, even as they insisted they stood with the throngs of peaceful demonstrators who have spoken out for several days against police brutality and racial injustice.

“We can’t let violence undermine the message of this moment,” de Blasio said in a statement. Cuomo blamed “people who are looking to distract and discredit” the protests and said they couldn’t be allowed to undermine public safety.

The two leaders, both Democrats, said many more police officers would be deployed Monday night.

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