At least 29 people were arrested and multiple protesters were hospitalized on Monday night after the NYPD broke up a Black Lives Matter march held in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Demonstrators who had gathered at Barclays Center earlier in the night said they were immediately corralled by officers after emerging from the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge at around 8:30 p.m. Videos show NYPD officers pushing the group into City Hall Park and surrounding them, then charging into the crowd with batons to make arrests.
In one instance, an officer with the NYPD's Strategic Response Group was seen rushing a protester who had stepped through a porous series of barricades, pulling him from a curb and detaining him with several other officers. Friends of the person said he was singled out for arrest after briefly stepping onto the roadway. As of Tuesday morning, the NYPD had not provided a list of charges for the protesters.
A police spokesperson said 10 officers were injured at the protest, half of whom refused treatment. The other half were treated at the scene. The most serious injury was to a captain, who was struck in the helmet with a bottle, police said.
Protesters, meanwhile, insisted the arrests were unprovoked. The department declined to answer questions about their rationale for making the arrests.
“They asked us to get off the street then onto the sidewalk, then they blocked the sidewalk and started to systematically arrest people on the sidewalk,” said Jess Davis, a 31-year-old Brooklyn resident who helped organize the Black Liberation March. “Their presence is purely here to intimidate.”
The aggressive show of force comes exactly one month after the Department of Investigation identified several flaws in the NYPD's policing of political demonstrations. That report called on the department to "reevaluate the central role of the Strategic Response Group" — a heavily-militarized, anti-terrorism arm of the NYPD — "in response to large protests."
But even after Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to accept those recommendations, the controversial unit took the lead in Monday's violent crackdown, at some points outnumbering the group of protesters they were policing.
Emily Hagan, 24, told Gothamist that SRG officers pushed a metal barricade into her face, then crushed her hand with a baton. She was treated for a head injury and sprained fingers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, according to hospital discharge papers shared with Gothamist.
“No one was out there like, ‘I’m gonna hurt a cop,' That was not the energy," Hagan told Gothamist. "The energy was just to honor MLK day.”
De Blasio's press office did not respond to requests for comment about the NYPD's handling of the protest. A City Hall official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared reprisal, described the NYPD's actions as "absurd," given the scrutiny they're facing.
Last week, New York Attorney General Tish James filed a lawsuit against the department for "a pattern of excessive, brutal, and unlawful force against peaceful protesters."
Tameer Peak, a 25-year-old activist from Newark, said he was punched in the face by an officer on Monday night while he was trying to film arrests. When he fell to the ground, he said, an officer kicked him in the head.
Peak was taken to the 7th precinct along with other protesters, where he said he began vomiting while he was being processed, the result of a suspected concussion. He was released at 4:30 a.m. with a desk appearance ticket for obstructing governmental administration.
“It’s not surprising to me that it would happen. I feel like the NYPD and any other police force, they were designed to do this,” he told Gothamist. “They were designed to capture Black people even on a holiday that celebrates Black icons. They don’t care. They don't give a shit.”
UPDATE 2:00 p.m.: According to a breakdown provided by the NYPD, 21 people were arrested and charged on Monday with disorderly conduct. Additionally, seven people received desk appearance tickets — three for obstructing governmental administration, three for resisting arrest, and one for misdemeanor assault.
The spokesperson also provided an update for the five officers were treated for minor injuries. Their injuries included "pain and swelling to an ankle; pain and bruising to left leg; an injured upper arm; an injured elbow; an injured shoulder," according to the department.