Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn Condemns NYPD Response To City-Wide Protests Following George Floyd’s Murder
For Immediate Release
May 30, 2020
LID Condemns NYPD Response To City-Wide Protests Following George Floyd’s Murder
Last Friday, protesters risked their health and safety in the name of justice, to call out yet another grievance orchestrated by this nation’s law enforcement. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Tony McDade, four black civilians, are all disturbing, heartbreaking, aggravating, and insulting; and sadly they are only the latest in state-sanctioned deaths and neglect by police.
During a peaceful protest, NYPD brutally assaulted, beat and pepper sprayed Brooklynites at the Barclays Center. Assembly Member Diana Richardson and State Senator Zellnor Myrie were pepper sprayed. Senator Myrie was handcuffed. LID member Jacqui Painter was shoved to the ground and kicked repeatedly by police.
LID member Jacqui Painter after being brutalized by NYPD police at a peaceful protest.
Too many times we are told by police institutions that these are separate tragedies as part of an effort to disempower black anger. We are not fooled. The NYPD’s history, as with the history of police in other cities, has existed in part to suppress social movements of minorities. We will not forget, as an LGBTQ political club, the history of harassment, beatings, and murders by police officers towards queer people, particularly Black queer people. Stonewall was a riot against abuse by the police. That event represents a spirit of rebellion inherent in every queer person’s soul, and we know when righteous anger must be directed at authorities abusing their power.
We know that police institutions have been documented to hide officer misconduct, police brutality, and repeat offenses. We know that police institutions continue to inadequately address the racism in their ranks which empowers some officers to invade and demean the bodies of black folks. We know that police institutions neglect the well-being of even their own officers through an insular culture that discourages seeking mental health support to address burn out, vicarious trauma, and depersonalization – all of which contribute to their own serious health issues including risks of suicide.
We know that some officers may feel the judgment from protesters is unfair; that their job is difficult. But all institutions of power, in their endeavor to become more authentic and better servants to the public, must identify, address, and rectify any grievance of abuse in their history. No implicit bias training will help the NYPD from addressing the core issue of a need for total reform on how policing is conducted in this city and this country as whole.
Lambda Independent Democrats is not the first to call this grievance out. We will not be the last. The NYPD will continue to erode their relationship with the general public the longer they fail to meaningfully address the lack of transparency and accountability to police brutality.
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