Protesters in the Bronx Systemic Police Brutality and Its Costs in the United States
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“Kettling” Protesters in the Bronx Systemic Police Brutality and Its Costs in the United States Copyright © 2020 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-8639 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org SEPTEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-1-62313-8639 “Kettling” Protesters in the Bronx Systemic Police Brutality and its Costs in the United States Map .................................................................................................................................. i Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 9 I. Background ................................................................................................................. 11 Nationwide Protests Against Police Brutality and Systemic Racism .......................................... 11 Poverty and Policing in Mott Haven ......................................................................................... 16 II. Protest in Mott Haven ................................................................................................ 22 The FTP4 Protest ..................................................................................................................... 22 Rally and March through the Neighborhood ............................................................................ 24 Police Crackdown ................................................................................................................... 27 “Kettling” ......................................................................................................................... 27 Beatings, Pepper Spray, and Mass Arrests ....................................................................... 28 Targeting Legal Observers, Medics, Essential Workers, and Bystanders ............................ 32 Detention in Abusive Conditions ..................................................................................... 40 Injuries Sustained by Protesters and Observers ................................................................ 44 Policing the South Bronx ......................................................................................................... 47 III. “A Plan, Executed Nearly Flawlessly”: Response from Police and City Officials ......... 49 IV. The Operation’s Cost ................................................................................................. 53 Police Deployment in Mott Haven ............................................................................................ 55 Cost of the Operation .............................................................................................................. 58 The Hidden Costs of Police Misconduct ........................................................................... 60 V. Ineffective Accountability that Fuels Impunity ............................................................ 63 Police Oversight in New York City ........................................................................................... 64 Internal Oversight Mechanisms ....................................................................................... 64 Failure of Judicial Checks and Balances ........................................................................... 66 Independent Oversight ..................................................................................................... 67 Police Protections ................................................................................................................... 70 Constraints with Civil Lawsuits ......................................................................................... 70 Police Unions ................................................................................................................... 72 VI. Applicable Legal Standards ....................................................................................... 74 International Human Rights Law ............................................................................................. 74 Constitutional Civil Rights Protections .................................................................................... 79 First Amendment ............................................................................................................. 80 Fourth Amendment .......................................................................................................... 82 Fourteenth Amendment .................................................................................................... 83 NYPD Patrol Guide ................................................................................................................. 84 VII. The Limits of Incremental Reform ............................................................................ 86 VIII. Way Forward: Structural Change ............................................................................. 92 To the Bronx District Attorney ................................................................................................. 92 To the Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) ............................................ 92 To the Office of the Mayor of New York City .............................................................................. 93 To the Governor of New York ................................................................................................... 93 Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... 99 Annex I : Letter from Human Rights Watch to the NYPD ................................................. 100 Annex II: Letter from the NYPD to Human Rights Watch ................................................ 104 Map © 2020 SITU Research for Human Rights Watch i Summary On the evening of June 4, 2020, about 300 people marched peacefully through Mott Haven, a low-income neighborhood in New York City’s South Bronx, to protest police violence and systemic racism. Less than an hour into the march, and about 10 minutes before an 8 p.m. curfew went into effect, the marchers encountered scores of police officers with riot gear, including helmets, shields, and batons. Bicycle police used their bikes to form a wall and prevented the protesters from moving forward, while other officers pushed from behind – a tactic known as “kettling.” The protesters were trapped, with no way to disperse. “We were being packed and packed like sardines,” one protester later recalled. Many started chanting, “Let Us Go!” and one person cried out, “You’re gonna kill us – I can’t breathe.” Just after 8 p.m. and the start of the city-wide curfew – imposed a few days earlier due to looting in other areas– the police moved in on the protesters, unprovoked and without warning, whaling their batons, beating people from car tops, shoving them down to the ground, and firing pepper spray in their faces. “Then it’s kind of all a blur,” one protester said, recounting how a police officer punched him in the face, another twisted his finger and broke it, and a third pulled off his Covid-19 face mask and doused him with pepper spray. “Then they dragged me on the ground and beat me with batons,” he said. “Somewhere in the process of being cuffed, I had a knee on my neck.” As protesters cried out – some with blood dripping down their faces – the police began to arrest them. They forced people to sit on the street with their hands zip-tied behind their backs, at times so tight that their hands went numb. Clearly identified medics and legal observers were among those targeted, as police beat a number of them, detained them and obstructed their work. Ambulances eventually arrived, and a medic who was zip-tied at the time said that he saw at least three people carried away on stretchers: “[They were] handcuffed to the stretchers, with head bandages, visibly bleeding from the bandage.” 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2020 The protest in Mott Haven was one of hundreds that broke out across New York City and the wider United States following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Floyd’s was the latest in a series of high-profile killings of unarmed Black people by police in the country. Law enforcement officers across the United States responded to many of these largely peaceful protests with violence, excessive force, and abuse. They beat up protesters, conducted mass arrests, and fired teargas, pepper spray, stun grenades, and rubber bullets to disperse and discourage protests. This report is based on interviews or written accounts from 81 people who participated in