Host of issues bedeviled NYPD in Floyd protests

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department was caught off guard by the size of the spring protests after the killing of George Floyd and resorted to aggressive disorder control methods that stoked tensions and stifled free speech, the city’s inspector general said in a report released Friday.

The Department of Investigation report followed a six-month probe that focused on the NYPD’S institutional planning and response to the May and June protests after Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis, rather than on the actions of individual officers.

It criticized tactics that included trapping demonstrators with a technique called kettling, making mass arrests, using pepper spray and batons and detaining protesters for hours. Too few officers were deployed early in the demonstrations, the report states.

The report also found that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to impose a nightly curfew after two days of looting exacerbated conflicts between demonstrators and police officers, who were given mixed messages on how it was to be enforced.

De Blasio’s executive order said the curfew applied to everyone, with exceptions for essential workers. In subsequent public statements, he said the curfew wouldn’t apply to “peaceful protesters.”

The Department of Investigation recommended that the NYPD create a unit to lead protest planning and response, adopt policies and training that reinforce respect for First Amendment rights and improve messaging during demonstrations, such as repeating dispersal orders and staging officers in riot gear out of the view of protesters.

It also recommended that the department no longer use for protests a rapid-response unit that deals in terrorism and other emergencies.