With little provocation, NYPD charged charged into Cadman Plaza, swinging batons and leaving a wake of injured protesters.
By Progress New York Staff
New Yorkers protesting the patterns or practises of racism and brutality by police forces clashed with officers of the New York Police Department in what started out as a peaceful protest in Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn Wednesday night, according to reports. The confrontation turned violent as riot police surged into the public park off of Downtown Brooklyn, swinging batons and reportedly injuring protesters, according to a report published by the New York Times. The violent confrontation was recounted on the Twitter social media platform, prompting the office of State Attorney General Letitia James (D-New York) to request that a complaint be submitted to her office.
In the face of new reports of unprovoked brutality at the hands of NYPD officers on what was the seventh night of public rebellion in New York City, police reform activists were confronted with a perplexing contradiction : the Nation’s top prosecutor for New York’s eastern district is headquartered in an office building facing Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, and yet there has been no material response from Federal attorneys charged with enforcing Federal civil rights laws in the face of the ongoing and continuing allegations of police brutality in New York City. The U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn is Richard Donoghue, a Trump administration appointee.
As U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue neglects to enforce Federal civil rights of protesters, he rushes to investigate allegations of assault of police officers as potential acts of domestic terrorism.
Not long after the physical onslaught by police on peaceful protesters took place in Cadman Plaza, Federal law enforcement officials reportedly rushed to Flatbush, Brooklyn, to investigate allegations that three NYPD officers were assaulted. The prompt Federal response raised eyebrows, because the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force reportedly joined the investigation of the Flatbush assault, according to a report published by the New York Post.
Whenever Federal law enforcement officials commence a criminal investigation that may involve issues of national security, the Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation consult the local U.S. Attorney’s office so that oversight can ensure that “public confidence is maintained,” according to the Attorney General’s Guidelines on Domestic FBI Operations. It’s not known why U.S. Attorney Donoghue would make it a priority to dispatch FBI domestic terrorism agents to investigate an assault on three police officers, and then, at the same time, neglect to intercede in the police-directed violence taking place elsewhere across his jurisdiction in Brooklyn.
Besides the clash that took place at Cadman Plaza, near U.S. Attorney Donoghue’s office, an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a Federal jail, was reportedly pepper-sprayed to death on Wednesday. The Metropolitan Detention Center has been the site of many complaints over violations of physical condition standards and inmate treatment. Yet, as with police brutality, U.S. Attorney Donoghue has turned a blind eye to repeated allegations of unconstitutional jail conditions in his own district.
Thus far this week, the office of U.S. Attorney Donoghue has declined to answer multiple requests for comment.
One journalist has described officials’ refusal to acknowledge the videos of police brutality being posted on social media as “willful ignorance.”
Recommended Reading
- As DOJ ignores racism and police brutality at NYPD, unanswered questions about whether Federal civil rights are subject to discretionary enforcement [Progress New York]
- ‘They murdered my son’ : Brooklyn inmate who died after being maced by guards was asthmatic, family says [The New York Daily News]
- Inmate dies of heart attack after being pepper sprayed at Brooklyn federal jail : source [The New York Daily News]
- NYC officials cite ‘credibility issues’ in Brooklyn federal jail reporting zero coronavirus cases [The New York Daily News]