Police say they have charged one person with felony assault, and 24 others with disorderly conduct following a Saturday protest in Brooklyn against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Police arrested a total of 41 people at the protest in Bay Ridge. Footage posted on social media shows police punching at least three protesters who were pinned to the ground before they were arrested. Police charged a 38-year-old woman with felony assault for reportedly kicking a police officer in the knee as she arrested her, according to court records.
On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams and top NYPD officials doubled down on their support of the police response to the protest.
“I take my hat off to the police department, how they handled an unruly group of people,” said Mayor Eric Adams in a TV interview on Monday morning, calling the punching an “isolated encounter.”
Video from the protest in Bay Ridge shows police punching at least two protesters repeatedly, and another at least once, as they were pinned to the ground. In one instance, a white-shirted police commander is seen holding his hand around a man’s neck before punching him three times. In another, police are shown shoving a man against a signpost then throwing him to the ground.
The chaos on Saturday comes after a historic settlement with the city that requires the NYPD to overhaul how it responds to protests, including its training and policies around the use of force at demonstrations. The mayor did not address the settlement in his response to police actions on Monday.
A video showed one protester bleeding from the head while walking to an arrest van after a white-shirted commander punched him three times. The NYPD did not respond to an inquiry about whether the man was offered medical attention.
In another video taken by independent reporter Katie Smith, an officer punched a man at least six times as he lay on the ground. A police commander also kicked at the man, though the video does not show whether he made contact.
In a third incident filmed by reporter Talia Jane, an officer shoved a man into a signpost then threw him onto the ground. He was pinned down by officers as one punched him.
“I saw no evidence of actions by protesters today that warranted such an aggressive response from NYPD,” local Council member Justin Brannan said in a post on X.
Footage of the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group recalled conduct from Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, which ran taxpayers $13 million in misconduct lawsuit payouts.
“We will not accept the narrative that persons arrested were victims,” the NYPD said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The department produced and published a video showing one man on top of an MTA bus, as well as water bottles and what police said were other objects being thrown at officers. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said on his X that the man was putting “others in danger.”
Saturday’s protest marked this year’s annual commemoration of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes leading to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Bay Ridge is home to New York City’s largest Palestinian population, according to public advocate Jumaane Williams, who called Saturday’s police response “inexcusable.”
Executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union Donna Lieberman called on the city to hold the NYPD accountable to the protest settlement, adding that NYCLU monitors witnessed violent arrests, protester injuries and arrests of credential members of the press.
“The continual pattern of NYPD aggression against pro-Palestine demonstrators raises important questions about the City’s disparate treatment of speakers based on their message,” Lieberman wrote in a statement.
