Peace and war
Cop big showed unity, ripped as aggressive
The NYPD’s outgoing top uniformed officer got down on one knee and clasped hands with protesters at a George Floyd demonstration over the summer to promote unity and progress, he said Friday.
“I took a knee with people who were willing to not fight police, but to embrace change and come together,” retiring Chief Terence Monahan said on Fox 5’s “Good Morning New York.”
“We can’t be fighting against one another,” Monahan said. “It can’t be one side against the other. To get this city back we all have to work together as New Yorkers. Not as one side versus the other.”
Monahan announced his retirement on Thursday. He’ll become senior adviser for recovery safety planning in the city’s COVID-19 recovery effort. Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison will take Monahan’s place as Chief of Department.
In June, Monahan was photographed taking a knee and hugging an organizer at a George Floyd protest in Washington Square Park, as protesters threw bottles at police officers.
He made the move to remind protesters that many officers were also upset over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota cops.
“There’s not a police officer here that thinks Minnesota was justified,” he said at the demonstration. “We stand with you.”
The gesture was criticized by some in law enforcement circles who saw the move as a capitulation to protesters who wanted to harm cops.
Later in the summer, Monahan was injured in a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge and was accused of ordering his officers to aggressively clear the streets of demonstrators during several marches, most notably in Mott Haven, the Bronx, where critics say the NYPD trapped more than 300 people until the 8 p.m. citywide curfew started and then arrested them all for breaking the law.
He is named in a lawsuit against the department filed by state Attorney General Letitia James, and is expected to be interviewed by the Civilian Complaint Review Board about his actions during the George Floyd protests next week.
“This was a tough year,” Monahan said Friday about the allegations against him. “Decisions had to be made as things were going on. That was an unbelievable time, not just here but around the country, but we have to move forward.”
In an interview on 1010 WINS
Friday, Harrison said one of his first steps as Chief of Department will be to look into how the department can better handle demonstrations.
“We are going to investigate every single complaint and then go into training and make sure our members who are deployed to these events have the training to allow peaceful protests,” Harrison said.
“It’s a difficult balance,” he said about policing protests. “Most people are trying to protest in a peaceful manner but there are some agitators. We have to find a balance and allow them to (protest) in a peaceful manner.”