NYC Investigation Calls For NYPD Oversight Board After 'Selective Enforcement' In George Floyd Protests

The NYPD is under fire following a report that it failed to effectively respond to the George Floyd protests earlier this year by provoking violent clashes and deteriorating public trust. The NYPD shot up Twitter’s trending list as users demanded accountability.

The conclusions of New York City’s Department of Investigations say the NYPD’s “selective enforcement” and frequent use of force against peaceful, legal protesters led to heightened tensions.

“[The tactics] reflected a failure to calibrate an appropriate balance between valid public safety or officer safety interests and the rights of protesters to assemble and express their views,” the report says.

It also found the department initially deployed too few officers before overcompensating and flooding the streets with personnel, many of whom were not trained to deal with large protests.

Officers’ inconsistent enforcement of a curfew further reduced public trust as the NYPD “often failed to discriminate between lawful, peaceful protesters and unlawful actors.”

The NYPD showed an overreliance on intelligence, such as when they received information that a Mott Haven protest might turn violent. Instead of preparing to stop possible violence, police made mass arrests of peaceful protesters with a forceful crackdown.

The report calls for better training and the dissolution of several crackdown-focused units in favor of a dedicated protest response unit focused on de-escalation along with the merging of several outside oversight channels into one dedicated oversight body.

Mayor Bill deBlasio released a video shortly after taking some responsibility for the response and pledging that the city will do better.

“I look back with remorse. I wish I had done better, I want everyone to understand that,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons. I want our police department to do better, and I’m going to insist upon that.”

Some activists, however, won’t accept anything short of a leadership change.

“The fundamental problem is a department whose leadership and culture allowed the events of this summer to unfold,” reads a joint statement from the ACLU and the Legal Aid Society. “Mayor de Blasio’s mea culpa comes a day late and a dollar short. It should not have required a City investigation for him to reach the same conclusion as millions with eyes to see bore witness to this past summer.”