Probe Faults NYPD Response To George Floyd Protests

NEW YORK CITY — A highly-anticipated report on NYPD's actions during the George Floyd protests criticized the department's heavy-handed tactics against largely peaceful protests and found they inflamed tensions.

But the big picture critiques offered in the 111-page Department of Investigation report released Friday don't extend to instances of individual officers, many of whom were seen committing acts of violence against protesters.

The report states investigations of individual misconduct remain ongoing and it — in order to not interfere — would focus instead on systemic problems.

It found the NYPD's response to the George Floyd protests in May and June lacked a “clearly defined strategy” and undermined the public's confidence that the department can protect the rights of citizens to engage in lawful protest.

"The NYPD’s use of force and certain crowd control tactics to respond to the Floyd protests produced excessive enforcement that contributed to heightened tensions," it states.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who spent the protests trying to thread the needle of defending the NYPD's actions and demonstrators' grievances about police brutality, said in a video that the report made clear the police and city need to do better.

"I agree with its analysis and I agree with its recommendations because it makes very clear we've got to do something different, we've got to do something better," he said.

A nationwide wave of protests broke after George Floyd, a Black man from Minneapolis, died with a police officer's knee on his neck. The first days of protests in New York City were marked by violent encounters between demonstrators and NYPD officers, and looting in Manhattan and the Bronx.

The DOI report found the NYPD largely failed to distinguish between the largely-isolated cases unlawfulness and the overwhelmingly peaceful nature of the wider protests.

The "majority of protesters peaceably exercised their rights to assemble, associate, and speak, and individuals seemingly unaffiliated with the protests used the opportunity to engage in looting," it states.

NYPD officials had valid concerns about violence and property damage, the report state.

"Yet by adopting a broad disorder control approach focused on force, control, and arrests, the NYPD gave insufficient attention to the need to balance the important objective of preventing additional violence and damage with the imperative of protecting citizens’ rights to engage in lawful protest," the report states. "This approach inevitably led to instances where NYPD officers acted indiscriminately as between lawful, peaceful protesters and unlawful actors, thereby exercising force beyond what was necessary under the circumstances. Further, the size and appearance of the force gave the NYPD response an intimidating, confrontational character, which contributed to rather than reduced tensions between the police and the crowds, provoking additional violence."

Read the full report here: