Pols: Name names in NYPD’s protest mess
A high-profile report on the NYPD’s handling of summer anti-police brutality protests is full of glaring holes, City Council leaders said Wednesday, calling on the Department of Investigation to name names and answer remaining questions.
Last week, the department released a 111-page report finding the NYPD lacked a clear strategy in handling the heated demonstrations and made key errors in its use of mass arrests, batons and the like.
But the individuals responsible for the missteps were effectively let off the hook, Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) and Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), head of the Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, suggested in a letter to DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett.
“Systemic failure cannot be properly diagnosed without an understanding of individual failures; systems are nothing without the individuals who create and implement them,” the lawmakers wrote.
“The failure to properly identify and address individual misconduct is itself a systemic failure,” they added.
Noting that former NYPD Chief of Patrol Pichardo refused to cooperate with DOI’s investigation, they called for details of his actions during the protests and of his stonewalling.
Johnson and Torres also took exception with alleged coyness from officers interviewed during the investigation, noting that some pleaded ignorance of the very idea of “kettling,” the controversial technique for corralling protesters.
The pols said it’s not even clear whether DOI bothered to scrutinize Mayor de Blasio and First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan’s personal roles in the protests, noting Garnett told reporters Hizzoner had not been interviewed by investigators.
The mayor repeatedly defended the NYPD’s tactics over the summer and said last week that his administration would focus on making changes instead of punishing officers.
Among the numerous questions Johnson and Torres raised, they asked for Garnett to examine claims of “organized looting” from officials including Police Commissioner Dermot Shea. While shops in Manhattan and the Bronx were robbed amid protests at the end of May, the electeds suggested Shea exaggerated the extent of the coordination among the culprits.
The Department of Investigation declined to comment on details of the letter.
“DOI has received councilmember Johnson and Torres’ letter and will review their request,” spokeswoman Nicole Turso said in an email.
On Wednesday afternoon, de Blasio’s Corporation Counsel Jim Johnson released findings from his separate investigation into the summer protests, which were sparked by the May 25 death of Black Minnesota man George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer.
The new, 53-page report gave muted criticism of the NYPD while suggesting that protesters were partially to blame for the clashes, which prompted 82 protesters to sue the city for alleged police brutality in August.
“The language used at the protests may have affected both NYPD officer behavior and the behavior of those attending the protests,” Jim Johnson’s report stated, citing chants such as “How do you spell racist? N-Y-P-D!”
“To the extent that protesters’ justifiable anger and grief was sometimes translated into hostility and disgust towards the officers around them, this may have ratcheted up tension between the two groups, and negatively impacted the events at protests,” it added.
The NYPD said in a statement it was “grateful” for the 10 jargon-laden recommendations from the corporation counsel, such as “institutionalize a practice of conducting regular after-action reviews following major protest events.”