Post by WaTcHeR on May 12, 2006 12:24:05 GMT -5
05/12/2006 - The city agency investigating the police response to protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention has sharply criticized the performance of two deputy chiefs, saying that they yelled incomprehensible orders to marchers, resulting in many unnecessary arrests.
The agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, outlined its findings in a two-page letter sent yesterday to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. The board plans to distribute the letter today at its monthly meeting.
In the letter, the board described the tangle of events at two demonstrations in Manhattan on Aug. 31, 2004, at which it said marchers were given little chance to obey the deputy chiefs' orders to disperse, and wound up being arrested.
The board found that protesters got penned in on the sidewalks with no easy way to leave during a march on Fulton Street. Later, at a march near Herald Square, the police orders to "clear the streets," created confusion. In both cases, the letter said, the fact that the chiefs did not use bullhorns left some police officers unaware of their orders and raised the possibility that marchers who were arrested would have obeyed had they heard them.
While not directly addressing the question of whether the chiefs had addressed the crowds properly, Commissioner Kelly defended the department's actions during the convention, pointing out that the police are not obligated to give warnings before making arrests. "And the implication that the N.Y.P.D. failed during the R.N.C.," he said, "turns truth on its head."
"The policing of the R.N.C. was one of the Police Department's finest hours," Mr. Kelly continued. "It protected the city against a potential terrorist attack while accommodating massive, peaceful protest. The Aug. 31 arrests cited by the C.C.R.B. came on the day a minority vowed to shut the convention down."
Neither of the deputy chiefs was named in the letter, though the police and people familiar with the proceedings identified them as Stephen Paragallo and Terrence Monahan. The board said it could not substantiate a more serious claim that Chief Monanan had ordered improper arrests on Fulton Street. In March, the board charged Chief Paragallo with abuse of authority for ordering the arrest of a 56-year-old Brooklyn woman near Herald Square, where at least 15 people were arrested.
The board said the Police Department should review the training it gives officers charged with policing public events that could attract protesters.
"The board believes that if the deputy chiefs had employed different tactics, the Police Department may possibly have avoided arresting a large number of individuals," it said in the letter, signed by Hector Gonzalez, its chairman, and Florence L. Finkle, its executive director.
The board's recommendations cap its formal evaluation of 63 complaints stemming from the Republican National Convention, at least three of them against chiefs who were at the scene and came into contact with the public.
Of the 63 cases, only 3 were substantiated, a point Commissioner Kelly stressed last night. In the others, the board found no misconduct in 32, 18 were dropped, 7 were stymied because the officers could not be identified, 2 were listed as miscellaneous because the officers left the department before the investigation could be completed, and 1 was mediated.
The Police Department is not obligated to follow the board's recommendations. The board, established in 1993, can make recommendations, but Commissioner Kelly has the final say. A majority of the members are appointed by the mayor and the commissioner. The board said it had reviewed video of both marches and mass arrests.
Chief Monahan ordered the arrests of 227 people participating in the large march on Fulton Street on Aug. 31, 2004. In October 2004, the Manhattan district attorney's office announced that it would not prosecute cases against them.
Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the group has filed two federal lawsuits against the city and Mr. Kelly, challenging the mass arrests of protesters at Fulton Street, as well as the arrests of nearly 400 people at a march later that day on East 16th Street.
In the second case, prosecutors have not dismissed any criminal charges against marchers. The board's letter to Mr. Kelly yesterday echoed complaints voiced by demonstrators in the aftermath of the convention, Mr. Dunn said. "From the start, the mass arrests of protesters at the convention have been tainted by complaints that people were not given clear orders to disperse, were trying to cooperate with the police and were acting lawfully," he said. "This report from the C.C.R.B., which is an official city agency, now shows that those complaints were entirely valid."
The same issue — ambiguous instructions given by senior police commanders at public demonstrations — has been cited in a federal lawsuit against the city and several police officials. The suit was brought by Daniel M. Perez, a civil rights lawyer, on behalf of 16 protesters who attended a march in the city on Feb. 3, 2002, for the World Economic Forum.
"This is a systemic problem that the Police Department is incapable of dispersing groups of demonstrators without either surrounding them with nets or scooters or riot-clad police officers, and arresting all of them," said Mr. Perez, who is a partner in the firm Kuby & Perez.
The agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, outlined its findings in a two-page letter sent yesterday to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. The board plans to distribute the letter today at its monthly meeting.
In the letter, the board described the tangle of events at two demonstrations in Manhattan on Aug. 31, 2004, at which it said marchers were given little chance to obey the deputy chiefs' orders to disperse, and wound up being arrested.
The board found that protesters got penned in on the sidewalks with no easy way to leave during a march on Fulton Street. Later, at a march near Herald Square, the police orders to "clear the streets," created confusion. In both cases, the letter said, the fact that the chiefs did not use bullhorns left some police officers unaware of their orders and raised the possibility that marchers who were arrested would have obeyed had they heard them.
While not directly addressing the question of whether the chiefs had addressed the crowds properly, Commissioner Kelly defended the department's actions during the convention, pointing out that the police are not obligated to give warnings before making arrests. "And the implication that the N.Y.P.D. failed during the R.N.C.," he said, "turns truth on its head."
"The policing of the R.N.C. was one of the Police Department's finest hours," Mr. Kelly continued. "It protected the city against a potential terrorist attack while accommodating massive, peaceful protest. The Aug. 31 arrests cited by the C.C.R.B. came on the day a minority vowed to shut the convention down."
Neither of the deputy chiefs was named in the letter, though the police and people familiar with the proceedings identified them as Stephen Paragallo and Terrence Monahan. The board said it could not substantiate a more serious claim that Chief Monanan had ordered improper arrests on Fulton Street. In March, the board charged Chief Paragallo with abuse of authority for ordering the arrest of a 56-year-old Brooklyn woman near Herald Square, where at least 15 people were arrested.
The board said the Police Department should review the training it gives officers charged with policing public events that could attract protesters.
"The board believes that if the deputy chiefs had employed different tactics, the Police Department may possibly have avoided arresting a large number of individuals," it said in the letter, signed by Hector Gonzalez, its chairman, and Florence L. Finkle, its executive director.
The board's recommendations cap its formal evaluation of 63 complaints stemming from the Republican National Convention, at least three of them against chiefs who were at the scene and came into contact with the public.
Of the 63 cases, only 3 were substantiated, a point Commissioner Kelly stressed last night. In the others, the board found no misconduct in 32, 18 were dropped, 7 were stymied because the officers could not be identified, 2 were listed as miscellaneous because the officers left the department before the investigation could be completed, and 1 was mediated.
The Police Department is not obligated to follow the board's recommendations. The board, established in 1993, can make recommendations, but Commissioner Kelly has the final say. A majority of the members are appointed by the mayor and the commissioner. The board said it had reviewed video of both marches and mass arrests.
Chief Monahan ordered the arrests of 227 people participating in the large march on Fulton Street on Aug. 31, 2004. In October 2004, the Manhattan district attorney's office announced that it would not prosecute cases against them.
Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the group has filed two federal lawsuits against the city and Mr. Kelly, challenging the mass arrests of protesters at Fulton Street, as well as the arrests of nearly 400 people at a march later that day on East 16th Street.
In the second case, prosecutors have not dismissed any criminal charges against marchers. The board's letter to Mr. Kelly yesterday echoed complaints voiced by demonstrators in the aftermath of the convention, Mr. Dunn said. "From the start, the mass arrests of protesters at the convention have been tainted by complaints that people were not given clear orders to disperse, were trying to cooperate with the police and were acting lawfully," he said. "This report from the C.C.R.B., which is an official city agency, now shows that those complaints were entirely valid."
The same issue — ambiguous instructions given by senior police commanders at public demonstrations — has been cited in a federal lawsuit against the city and several police officials. The suit was brought by Daniel M. Perez, a civil rights lawyer, on behalf of 16 protesters who attended a march in the city on Feb. 3, 2002, for the World Economic Forum.
"This is a systemic problem that the Police Department is incapable of dispersing groups of demonstrators without either surrounding them with nets or scooters or riot-clad police officers, and arresting all of them," said Mr. Perez, who is a partner in the firm Kuby & Perez.