Department Of Investigation Tells NYPD To Create Protest Planning and Response Team

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A recent analysis into the NYPD actions regarding the George Floyd protests found that the police authorities during that time had used excessive force and engaged in actions which in many ways arguably made the situation worse, adding to the chaos and potential violence in the community.

They investigated the planning and response that the NYPD engaged in over those protests across May and June, looking more at the institution rather than individual officer actions during that time.

They concluded that the actions of the mayor to impose a nightly curfew had caused confusion with the public and officers over how it was going to be enforced. According to that probe, they've concluded that the NYPD mishandled the protests and they likely escalated the tensions within the community.

Trapping Demonstrators With Kettling Technique

The police used an approach that we've seen used on protesters before, it is referred to as 'kettling,' which involves trapping demonstrators so that they can make mass arrests.

They were also seen allegedly engaging the protesters with batons and peppery spray as well, despite many of the protesters being out there and remaining peaceful, completely within their Constitutional rights to demonstrate on the public streets that their tax dollars fund.

“The problems went beyond poor judgment or misconduct by some individual officers,... Our investigation found that the NYPD as an institution made a number of key errors or omissions that likely escalated tensions and the potential for violence and certainly contributed to the public perception that the department was suppressing rather than facilitating lawful first amendment assembly and expression.” - Department of Investigation Commissioner M. Garnett

They want the police to create a new unit that is going to be tasked with upholding First Amendment rights for people to publicly protest.

That new unit would be in charge of any planning and response to ongoing protests like that which they saw this summer. It might lead to new policies and training to eventually be adopted by the police, so that they can better handle these situations. They've made a number of recommendations to the police already on how things might change going forward.

Despite those recommendations though, and efforts to establish more oversight, no amount of training or planning is going to matter if police officers are going to continue punishing peaceful individuals for the actions of violent others.

You can't refuse to uphold Constitutional rights because you disagree with the political message that the people on the streets are trying to spread.

To pretend that there weren't people out there who were peacefully engaged in political protest, and to fail to distinguish that from people who had been breaking the law in being violent against the property of others, is to be dishonest in assessing what actually took place.

There were journalists who had been attacked and many peaceful protesters who were unjustly injured during those demonstrations. As a result of those actions, there are class action lawsuits that have already been filed against various police departments for how they handled the George Floyd demonstrations and others.

Some of those lawsuits have alleged that the NYPD has engaged in excessive force, and acted in an indiscriminate manner, and that the city authorities might have even encouraged forceful police deployments and refused to properly discipline some of those officers who engaged in misconduct and acted outside of their authority.

As a part of that legal battle they want to ultimately seek disclosure from the government over what policies they used during that time of protest. They want to know the extent to which the government had authorized the brutal treatment of peaceful individuals who were engaged in Constitutionally protected actions.

Pics:
pixabay



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