Mayor downplays rough police treatment of NYC protesters

Mayor downplays rough police treatment of NYC protesters

Protesters gather in the rain for a rally at Union Square, Friday, June 5, 2020, in the Manhattan borough of New York. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
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Protesters gather in the rain for a rally at Union Square, Friday, June 5, 2020, in the Manhattan borough of New York. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
By  MICHAEL R. SISAK
Published 2:58 AM UTC, June 6, 2020
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NEW YORK (AP) — Another day of protests over the death of George Floyd brought more examples of New York City officials downplaying or denying the police department’s rough treatment of protesters — even when it was caught on video.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday he had personally seen “no use of force around peaceful protests” and cast doubt on people who had, belying social media posts and witness accounts of officers moving on demonstrators without provocation and bashing them with batons.

De Blasio made the comment in response to questions at his morning news briefing about teams of officers aggressively breaking up a rally in the Bronx as the city’s 8 p.m. curfew kicked in Thursday, leading to scores of arrests and cries of brutality. He said officers were using “lots of restraint.”

“What an absolute disgrace. This is just not true,” City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer tweeted afterward. “You are gaslighting an entire City.”

The department did later announce the suspensions without pay for two officers, in connection to two separate incidents from the early days of protest. In one, on May 29, a video clip showed an officer shoving a woman to the ground. In the second, on May 30, an officer was shown pulling a demonstrator’s mask down and spraying pepper spray. Both cases have been referred for disciplinary action.

Protesters marched through the city again Friday by the thousands. About three hundred people gathered in Union Square for a rally organized by medical professionals who have been battling the COVID-19 pandemic at its epicenter for the last three months. One protester held a sign that read, “You Clapped For Us, We Kneel For You,” referring to the ritual clapping New Yorkers do each night at 7 p.m. to salute health care workers.

“We want to redirect the respect that was given to us throughout the coronavirus pandemic and give that same respect to members of the community who are on the front lines fighting for social justice,” said Hillary Duenas, one of the event organizers who works at Mount Sinai.

On Friday night, demonstrators again remained on city streets hours after the curfew, with police generally allowing them. Crowds dwindled on their own at various locations, though officers in Brooklyn made at least a dozen orderly arrests while dispersing one group.

About an hour earlier and not far away, Randy Williams exchanged a fist bump with officers, who steadily removed one hand from their batons to shake with demonstrators. “I get in their faces every day not with hate, not with anger,” he said. “My delivery may be a little rough but the message is the same. I don’t dislike cops and I have been to prison. I don’t hate cops. I hate bullies”

As another sizable group dispersed on the Upper West Side, some who were walking away bantered about not wanting to get arrested because they wanted to be back on the streets Saturday.

The violent flareups that characterized some demonstrations last weekend have almost entirely given way to peaceful affairs. Looting that occurred on Sunday and Monday also appears to have ceased.

The tension now has occurred around the city’s 8 p.m. curfew, with police at some protests using force to enforce the order barring assemblies.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said by “willfully ignoring the evidence” of bystanders, reporters, observers, and peaceful protesters being brutalized in plain sight, the mayor is emboldening the police.

“I guess at this point the mayor is delusional,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said.

Despite de Blasio’s skepticism, he promised that all police misconduct allegations would be investigated. He also chided officers for mistreating essential workers exempt from the curfew, such as food delivery workers and journalists.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who gave a fiery speech Thursday denouncing a wave of vicious attacks on officers, said “sometimes when you’re in the middle of something, you don’t get to see the big picture too.”

On Friday evening, the department announced an arrest of two people in a June 2 incident where a police officer was hit by a car, sending him flying into the street and leaving him in serious condition.

The police department’s treatment of peaceful protesters, amid smash-and-grab sprees and sporadic unrest, has come under fire as demonstrations stretch into a second weekend, spurred by George Floyd’s May 25 death in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck.

After officers were recorded Wednesday shoving and hitting peaceful protesters as they enforced the curfew, it was Gov. Andrew Cuomo who doubted it happened, telling an Associated Press reporter that her question about the use of force was “a little offensive” and ”incendiary rhetoric.”

Cuomo backtracked after seeing the video and asked the state’s attorney general to probe that incident in her investigation into police misconduct during the protests. In a tweet, he said: “No peaceful protester deserves to be hit with a baton and no self-respecting police officer would defend that.”

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Associated Press reporters Karen Matthews and Deepti Hajela, video journalist Robert Bumsted and photographer John Minchillo in New York, and Marina Villeneuve in Albany contributed to this report.

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Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak