N.Y.P.D. Says It Used Restraint During Protests. Here’s What the Videos Show.

Authored by nytimes.com and submitted by TheEmpressIsIn
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The department said it exercised restraint. This is what the videos show.

At the height of the recent Black Lives Matter marches in New York City, the police were repeatedly recorded using force against protesters.

The videos below contain scenes of violence.

It was two hours after curfew on the sixth night of protests against police brutality in New York City.

An officer in Brooklyn pushed a protester so hard that she fell backward on the pavement. Then he shoved someone on a bicycle and picked up and body-slammed a third person into the street.

An officer shoves a protester to the ground and shoves a cyclist. The same officer then body-slams a third person to the pavement. June 2, Fourth and Atlantic Avenues, Brooklyn. Source: Daniel Altschuler

Nearby, a man fell running from the police. Officers swarmed him and beat him with batons. A commanding officer, in his white-shirted uniform, joined the fray and stepped on the man’s neck.

Several officers chase down and beat a person with their batons. A white-shirted officer runs up and steps on the person’s neck. June 2, Fourth and Atlantic Avenues, Brooklyn. Source: Allison McCann/The New York Times

All of it was caught on video. In fact, the New York Times found more than 60 videos that show the police using force on protesters during the first 10 days of demonstrations in the city after the death of George Floyd.

A review of the videos, shot by protesters and journalists, suggests that many of the police attacks, often led by high-ranking officers, were not warranted.

Some videos have been edited for length and clarity. See the full set of videos below.

A video of five or 10 or 30 seconds does not tell the whole story, of course. It does not depict what happened before the camera started rolling. It is unclear from the videos, for instance, what the officers’ intentions were or why protesters were being arrested or told to move.

But the Police Department’s patrol guide says officers may use “only the reasonable force necessary to gain control or custody of a subject.” Force, policing experts say, must be proportionate to the threat or resistance at hand at the moment it is applied.

In instance after instance, the police are seen using force on people who do not appear to be resisting arrest or posing an immediate threat to anyone.

Officers attacked people who had their hands up. A white-shirted officer shoves someone, who falls backward. May 29, Fifth Avenue and Bergen Street, Brooklyn. Source: @crankberries They hit people who were walking away from them. A white-shirted officer uses a baton to strike a person on a bike. June 4, Washington Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn. Source: John Knefel They grabbed people from behind. An officer walks into a crowd to grab someone from behind and pull them to the ground. A second officer throws a second person to the ground. June 2, Fifth Avenue and 83rd Street, Manhattan. Source: Requested anonymity And they repeatedly pummeled people who were already on the ground. A person is tackled to the ground by a group of officers and punched in the head multiple times. June 6, Nassau and Gold Streets, Brooklyn. Source: Mike Hassell

Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea has maintained that misconduct during the protests was confined to “isolated cases” and that officers were confronted with violence by protesters.

He noted that during the first few days of demonstrations, people looted businesses, burned police cars and attacked officers with bricks, bottles and in one case a fire extinguisher, prompting Mayor Bill de Blasio to impose an 8 p.m. curfew.

“I think the officers used an incredible amount of restraint in terms of allowing people to vent,” Commissioner Shea said on June 22. “I am proud of their performance in policing these protests, ending the riots and upholding the rule of law.”

Yet for just about each viral moment that emerged from the protests — officers violently shoving a woman to the ground or beating a cyclist who seemed to be doing nothing more than trying to cross the street — The Times turned up multiple examples of similar behavior.

The police responded to words with punches and pepper spray. An officer hits a person in the face and knocks them down. The person gets up and moments later is pepper-sprayed and shoved again. Two more officers pepper-spray a crowd of people. May 30, Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn. Source: Jean-Cosme Delaloye/JCDe Productions Officers charged into peaceful crowds and pushed people to the ground. An officer pushes through a crowd and grabs a person by the neck to push them aside. Another officer knocks the person over, and the first officer throws the person down again when they try to get up. May 30, Bedford and Tilden Avenues, Brooklyn. Source: Doug Gordon Sometimes, they appeared to lash out at random. An officer runs up and shoves someone several times, and then shoves a second and third person standing nearby. May 29, Greene and Classon Avenues, Brooklyn. Source: Zach Williams

Devora Kaye, the Police Department’s assistant commissioner for public information, declined repeated requests to review the full set of videos provided by The Times and to explain the use of force in them.

She reiterated that “isolated incidents” of misconduct were being addressed, noted that four officers had already been disciplined, and said that the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau was investigating 51 cases of use of force during the protests.

“The N.Y.P.D. has zero tolerance for inappropriate or excessive use of force,” she wrote, “but it is also critical to review the totality of the circumstances that lead to interactions where force is used.”

The police said that nearly 400 officers were injured during the protests, and that 132 of the more than 2,500 people arrested reported injuries, but that they did not have records of injured people who were not arrested. Protesters have described and documented at least five broken or fractured bones and four concussions.

When presented with the videos collected by The Times, Kapil Longani, counsel to Mr. de Blasio, said, “These incidents are disturbing and New Yorkers deserve a full accounting of these matters and access to a transparent disciplinary process.”

But he cautioned that the police disciplinary system needed time to carry out thorough investigations.

“To conclude that these officers or any American committed a crime without due process is inconsistent with the fundamental fairness that underlies our judicial system,” Mr. Longani said.

The Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents most N.Y.P.D. officers, declined to comment on the videos.

The episodes in the videos The Times reviewed were spread across 15 neighborhoods in three boroughs. Several videos each were taken June 3 in Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn and on June 4 in Mott Haven in the Bronx, when officers “kettled” protesters into tight spaces and then beat them with batons.

Philip M. Stinson, a Bowling Green State University criminologist and former police officer who studies the use of force by the police, offered a blunt assessment of the behavior shown in these videos.

“A lot of this was ‘street justice,’” he said, “gratuitous acts of extrajudicial violence doled out by police officers on the street to teach somebody a lesson.”

Sometimes, the police went after people already in custody. A person is being led away when an officer throws them to the ground. May 30, Bedford and Tilden Avenues, Brooklyn. Source: Lauren Mitchell Sometimes officers went after people they did not appear interested in arresting at all. An officer grabs someone from behind and throws the person into a parked car, where they appear to hit their head. Another officer steps over the person’s immobile body. May 29, 67 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn. Source: Michael Thoreau

Mr. Stinson said that in some of the videos, the police used force permissibly. He saw nothing inappropriate, for example, in this widely viewed video of officers using batons on people who appeared to be trying to evade arrest.

Officers repeatedly hit two people with batons. Another officer pushes someone to the ground. May 29, Barclays Center, Brooklyn. Source: Jon Campbell

In many other videos, though, he said he believed that force had been applied without discipline or supervision.

“Some of the stuff that they do is so sloppy,” he said. “Some of it is just downright criminal.”

Scott Hechinger, a public defender for nearly a decade in Brooklyn, said he found it striking that being filmed by crowds of protesters did not seem to inhibit some officers’ conduct.

“That the police were able and willing to perform such brazen violence when surrounded by cellphone cameras and when the whole world was watching at this moment more than any other, underscores how police feel and know they will never be held to account in any meaningful way even for the most egregious acts of violence,” Mr. Hechinger said.

Many of the videos show violence led by officers in white shirts, signaling a rank of lieutenant or higher.

In Manhattan on June 2, one commander shoved a protester and another pulled her down by the hair. A white-shirted officer pushes one person down, and then shoves another. A second officer grabs a protester by the hair to bring her to the ground. June 2, 17 Battery Place, Manhattan. Source: Brandon Remmert

A civil rights lawyer with the legal aid group the Bronx Defenders, Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, said she saw violations of constitutional rights in nearly all the videos, including the rights to free speech and due process.

“The primary question is whether the force is reasonable, but you have to remember, if they’re not arresting someone, they shouldn’t be using any force,” Ms. Borchetta said.

At several protests, the police used bicycles as weapons. Two officers lift their bicycles and push them repeatedly into a group of people, knocking one person over. May 28, Union Square, Manhattan. Source: Requested anonymity More often, they used their hands. An officer shoves two people, and one falls to the ground. May 29, DeKalb and Classon Avenues, Brooklyn. Source: Requested anonymity

The protests, and the outcry over the policing of them, have already led to changes. State legislators overturned a law that kept police discipline records secret and New York City cut its police budget and broadened a ban on chokeholds. Last week, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, called for an independent commission to permanently oversee the Police Department.

But acts of force by the police are still being caught on video, more than six weeks into the protests.

Axel Hernandez, a high school teacher in New York City who on June 3 filmed an officer throwing someone down by the neck, said he felt it was important to continue to keep watch over the police.

“Part of the reason we’re out here is because they were on George Floyd’s neck,” said Mr. Hernandez, 30. “This is exactly why we are protesting in the first place.”

darkwingduck487 on July 15th, 2020 at 13:33 UTC »

My cousin is the perfect example of someone who wants to be a cop that should never be a cop. His attitude, demeanor, and overall thought process is the exact kind that leads to someone getting shot for something small and pointless...and yet he thinks he is the perfect candidate.

SniffCheck on July 15th, 2020 at 12:04 UTC »

Keep beating the shit out of people. They’re bound to respect you sooner or later.

CorporalCabbage on July 15th, 2020 at 11:35 UTC »

Their response is aggression based. That is the worst attitude to have in a position where you serve the public.

Edit: Even if they technically don’t have to protect and serve, it’s still an awful way to manage a public facing position. I teach in a rough school. Sometimes I deal with difficult people who don’t want to be there, cuss me out, assault me, assault others, and cause all sorts of issues. Kids have brought guns to school. We deal with it without aggression. It’s a losing battle to push someone and expect them to stay in the same spot.

They can deal with some bad dudes, I get it. The option to pound nails should always be in the tool kit. It makes a shitty place to start from, though.