BY ZACH WILLIAMS | Dueling contingents of protesters demonstrated outside City Hall Dec. 19, engaging each other in a heated battle of words the night before a lone gunman would fatally shoot two NYPD officers in Brooklyn.
The verbal sparring began in the early evening hours last Friday, soon after about 100 people assembled for a #ThankYouNYPD rally, organized in response to the ongoing protests against police brutality, which have been in the headlines for weeks. About 100 more people came to oppose this counter-protest and highlight their support for reforming NYPD practices.
Rhetoric would only grow more heated in the subsequent days following the fatal shooting of the NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a man who posted anti-police statements on social media as well as references to Eric Garner, the Staten Island man who was killed by a police officer July 17.
At the City Hall protests prior to the murders of the officers, police stoically manned the middle ground between the two groups who were each confined to protest corrals set up for the occasion by NYPD on the eastern sidewalk of Broadway near the intersection with Murray St.
For the next several hours the two sides would rally, speak to members of the media and cast aspersions at the other side. NYPD supporters emphasized the rule of law and the dangers endured by law enforcement.
For some among that group, the death of Garner — an unarmed black man who died after a police officer choked him during an arrest — was not representative of the department which they said has distinguished itself, particularly since 9/11.
“I think they did such a great job then and they do a good job now,” said Peggy Padovano, a resident of Staten Island. “I think they are getting a really bad rap because of the incident that happened on Staten Island.”
The ongoing protests are “awful,” and target police officers for simply doing their job, said Carmen Rios, a Chelsea resident and wife of an NYPD officer.
“Don’t even get me started about them,” she added in reference to protesters on the other side who at that moment were chanting: “How do you spell racist? NYPD.”
Some activists protesting police brutality moved into the midst of NYPD supporters during the course of the evening to debate police practices such as “Broken Windows,” a public safety philosophy championed by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton which emphasizes the enforcement of laws against minor offenses as a means to prevent violent crime.
“While we do respect police officers, we really feel that the police department needs to be held accountable for its work and we need to have an accountable system and we need to end the criminalization of black and brown bodies,” said Eleni Zimiles of Brooklyn.
Only one police officer has ever been convicted of a crime out of the 179 NYPD-related deaths since 1999, according to the Daily News, which noted in a Dec. 8 report that 86 percent of the dead were Hispanic or black. Three police officers were indicted among the 179 incidents.
But even while activists on both sides of the debate sought to further civil discourse, other participants of the two Dec. 19 demonstrations spent most of their time criticizing the other side.
The next day, Brinsley killed the two officers in Bed-Stuy, after shooting his estranged girlfriend in Maryland earlier in the day.
The deaths followed months of escalating tensions between Mayor Bill de Blasio and police.
“That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor,” said Pat Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the police union. Former Gov. George Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani also criticized de Blasio’s handling of recent protests.
De Blasio for his part urged protesters on Monday to adopt a moratorium on street demonstrations out of respect for the fallen officers.
But NYPD critics say they will continue their activism though they reiterated they must do so through non-violent means. In a statement signed by 20 activists groups, they accused Lynch and NYPD leadership of appropriating the deaths for political purposes.
The actions of Brinsley do not reflect the belief of the thousands of New Yorkers who have taken to the streets in recent weeks, according to the statement.
“This individual acted as a lone wolf and committed a heinous crime,” Pete Haviland-Eduah, national policy director for Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, one of the 20 groups, said in a telephone interview.
He said the ongoing protests seek to develop a social consensus around how best to police local neighborhoods, but doing so will take time.
Even in the middle of the Dec. 19 demonstrations, activists from both sides of the issue could find common ground despite the angry arguments and obscene gestures made by people next to them outside City Hall.
A young black man from the Upper East Side and a white, middle-aged woman from Staten Island spoke at length about police relations with minority communities from respective sides of the protest corrals. They agreed that more needs to be done to ensure fairness in the judicial system while also recognizing the contributions made by police to public safety overall.
“He heard me through all of the noise and we started to talk back and forth and we were able to agree on certain things and find some common ground,” said Diane, a woman who came to support police and only gave her first name. “And I think that’s what people need to do not only in this city but around the country.”
