Our latest Visual Investigation reconstructs how @PhillyPolice violated its own use-of-force guidelines by using tear gas & pepper spray on a nonviolent group of protesters in #Philadelphia, some of whom were trapped on a highway. Watch what happened.
nytimes.com/video/us/10000…
nytimes.com/video/us/10000…
We went to the site, interviewed witnesses and analyzed dozens of videos. Many thanks to the witnesses Drew, Diamonik, Elias & Callan, who talked to us. Special thanks to Sunny Singh @hate5six — who filmed the whole episode — and to @rohinihaar for her analysis.
.@amnesty recently interviewed a former police officer, Graham Dossett, for its new website: teargas.amnesty.org Here’s an excerpt in which he spells out how not to use tear gas. Amnesty categorized the Philly incident as “unlawful police violence”: amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
I also talked to Chris Burbank from @PolicingEquity about using teargas & the overall police response to the #GeorgeFloyd protests. He is a former police chief for Salt Lake City and has considerable experience with crowd control.
Our findings directly contradict claims by @PPDCommish, including her initial assertion that a state trooper responding to the scene was put in danger by protesters surrounding his car. In fact, videos show that he had left his vehicle to join the approaching SWAT team. 
Pennsylvania State Police confirmed to us that he had left his vehicle. And the trooper’s dash-cam footage, released earlier this week, also does not match up with the official account.
A group of city officials called the “Unified Command Group” authorized the general use of tear gas a day earlier. Interesting exchange here between Helen Gym, a city councilwoman; Danielle Outlaw, the police commissioner; and Brian Abernathy, the city’s managing director
The Unified Command Group did not authorize the use of tear gas for the specific highway incident, which was left to the commander at the scene. The mayor’s office told me that this decision-making process was now under investigation, as part of a larger investigation.
Photographer @dylanjaredlong provided a detailed, personal account of the whole incident. He filmed a scene of protesters trying to escape the tear gas.
phawker.com/2020/06/02/eye…
phawker.com/2020/06/02/eye…
For more details, also check out the Twitter thread by my teammate @ntabriz, who worked with @muyixiao, @drewjordan_NYT, @bottidavid, @whitney_hurst and Natalie Reneau on this investigation
Important update: In response to our Visual Investigation on the #Philadelphia tear gas incident, the Mayor and Police Commissioner just publicly apologized and issued a moratorium on the use of tear gas. More soon...
