New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, arrested on disorderly conduct charges in a protest over the possible closure of a Brooklyn hospital, was released Wednesday afternoon.

De Blasio, City Council member Steve Levin and about a dozen others were arrested Wednesday afternoon in Midtown Manhattan near a State University of New York campus. They were charged with blocking the door to SUNY's headquarters.

The university system is considering selling Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, and despite a court order to stay open, LICH has not been accepting ambulance calls since last month. The protest was in part organized by a health care workers union that has endorsed de Blasio.

The public advocate and fellow protestors were placed in plastic handcuffs and escorted into a police van before being processed at a midtown south precinct.

"Ask someone in Brooklyn who's about to lose their hospitality what that feels like to them. Ask a family that's not going to have a hospital nearby anymore that's not going to have an emergency room what that means to them. It's not about pundits and politics. It's about life and death for them," de Blasio said after his release. He received a summons to appear at a hearing next month.

De Blasio has urged Gov. Cuomo to intervene.

The Associated Press contributed reports to this story.