Thread by @gideonoliver

Heres' the lawsuit @NewYorkStateAG @TishJames filed today against NYC, Mayor de Blasio, and the NYPD seeking prospective relief to challenge NYPD use of force and protest policing policies/practices, including around the recent George Floyd protests:

ag.ny.gov/sites/default/…

Here's the @NewYorkStateAG press release about the AG's lawsuit:

ag.ny.gov/press-release/…

The complaint outlines the case that, in response to the protests seeking justice for George Floyd, the City, Mayor, and NYPD engaged in "unlawful policing practices" that "are not new" but rather "the latest manifestation of the NYPD's unconstitutional policing practices"

The complaint's description of "The NYPD's Aggressive Response to Prior Protests" below cites to public reports as well as litigation spanning my whole 16+ year career - in fact, 6 of the 19 cases cited in footnotes 4-5 are either mine or cases I did substantial work on.

This paragraph from the AG's complaint summarizing some of the policies and practices the AG's lawsuit challenges tracks some of the well-documented practices activists have been subjected to, documented, complained about, and fought against, including in lawsuits, for decades

Like both the @NYC_DOI and NYC Law Department's reports about the NYPD's responses to the Floyd protests, the AG's complaint focuses on a lack of appropriate NYPD training and supervision on use of force and crowd control in policing First Amendment assemblies before the protests

Unlike the City agency reports, the AG's complaint directly implicates Mayor de Blasio, Commissioner Shea, Chief Monahan, and other City policymakers for their knowledge that the City's and NYPD's policies and training were inadequate before AND after the Floyd protests...

...as well as their failures (at the time and ongoing) to prevent the harms caused by or otherwise meaningfully address the NYPD's protest policing policies and practices.

In fact, the Complaint says *things got worse* as a result of the NYPD's *most recent* training:

There's a lot of talk about, and now even more than the usual amount of litigation over, the NYPD's relevant training - but no real public scrutiny of that NYPD training.

Here you can find depositions and documents describing that training as of 2012:

dropbox.com/sh/y18selkhl3c…

At least as of 2012, the NYPD's "Disorder Control Guidelines" - written in the 1990's - still formed the core around which most of the NYPD's crowd control and protest response policing related training were based. My guess is that not much has changed.

dropbox.com/sh/y18selkhl3c…

These ancient, evergreen, Disorder Control Guidelines treat First Amendment assemblies and serious civil disorders essentially the same, and focus on militarized tactics to "disperse and demoralize" protesters including by using "mobile tactics of speed, surprise and deception"

I've sued the City and NYPD for 16+ years over protest policing tactics and I'm co-counsel for over 150 people arrested and/or beaten around the past few months' protests. As such, I think litigation plays a role in police accountability...but I know that role is VERY limited.

Most civil rights lawsuits seek $$. The basic idea is governments that have to pay for police misconduct lawsuits will take steps, including through training and meaningful supervision and discipline, as insurance against having to pay for similar misconduct in the future.

That's not the impact that protest-related police misconduct litigation has historically in NYC! Instead of meaningful, let alone radical, change, year after year, the City pays out many millions of dollars in police misconduct settlements and judgments and litigation defense...

...all with the complicity, if not the support, of New York City elected officials - including and especially a series of Mayors, City Council members, and local prosecutors - nearly all of whom have failed and refused to demand or provide transparency, accountability, or change.

Unlike most of the NYC protest-related police misconduct litigation in the past two decades, much of which challenged NYPD policies and practices in the context of $$ claims, the AG's lawsuit only seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, including potential monitoring - not $$

Relatedly, the AG does not represent any individual client(s), but rather, the "People of the State of New York", by virtue of the AG's official authority as New York State's chief law enforcement officer and the OAG's "quasi-sovereign interest in the[ir] health and well-being"

Because the AG doesn't represent any individual client(s), but rather, "the People" of New York, writ large, as a practical matter, that means the AG has the authority, in the context of the lawsuit, to decide what's in their best interests, with or without their input or consent

At the end of the day, litigation, including litigation that ultimately wins injunctions, monitors, consent decrees, or other, similar results, can often decrease, rather than increase, real, public transparency and community accountability

So, IMO, it's important both to recognize how unprecedented and monumental it is that the NYS Attorney General is suing the City of New York, Mayor de Blasio, and NYPD officials over these policies and practices, and to do everything possible to ensure that the AG's litigation...

...is meaningfully led by, and centers the goals of, the people and communities, including activists, most impacted by the NYPD practices -- informed by public dissemination of as much of the actual discovery, including training-related documents, as possible.

No matter what the AG or others - myself and other plaintiffs' police misconduct lawyers included - do, people should settle for nothing short of real community control and accountability, along with public transparency, and never expect those things to come from lawsuits alone

I'm proud to co-counsel with @LegallyFemme @j_remy_green and @JessicaMassimi representing 150+ people arrested and/or brutalized by the NYPD in the past few months, including Rayne Valentine and others whose experiences were mentioned or referred to in the AG's complaint

Our courageous client Rayne Valentine, some of whose experiences around being brutalized by the NYPD are sumarrized in the AG's complaint in the passages below, also spoke to those experiences during the AG's press conference this morning

Rayne first shared his story with @OliviaMesser in this June 2, 2020 @dailybeast piece. NYPD members attacked Rayne while he was on the way home from the hospital where his work included "piling hundreds of dead bodies...into refrigerated morgue trucks":

https://twitter.com/OliviaMesser/status/1267887507565395968?s=20

A few days later, on June 5, 2020, Rayne again shared some of his experiences with @KatyTurNBC on @MSNBC:

msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/ny…

On August 31, 2020, we filed a Notice of Claim with the Comptroller of the City of New York identifying NYPD Detective Amjad Kasaji, Shield No. 6901, as the primary aggressor depicted in Rayne Valentine's cell phone video.

That August 31, 2020 Notice of Claim described how, on the night NYPD members assaulted Rayne on the street, other NYPD members, who had reportedly responded to the hospital to investigate reports to hospital staff that police had attacked him, further harassed and threatened him

The August 31, 2020 Notice of Claim further describes how, soon after Rayne was released from the hospital, other NYPD members showed up to harass him where he lived, ignored instructions that they did not have consent to come to his apartment, and repeatedly tried...

...to circumvent Rayne's lawyers and contact him directly.

When we called the NYPD on what the NYPD members who were purportedly investigating Rayne's beating had done, they told us in substance that nobody from IAB had gone to Rayne's apartment and they would not do that...

...After gaslighting us, the NYPD IAB members who were supposedly investigating Rayne's beating then stonewalled us. Yet they still wanted (and, I think, expected) Rayne to subject himself to further NYPD abuse, mistreatment, and dishonesty by subjecting to an interview.

Under these circumstances, where NYPD members had access to Rayne's video and statement on the night of the beating and NYPD members supposedly charged with investigating his beating have themselves been repeatedly abusive, he has not given them a further interview.

However...

** deep breath in criminal defense lawyer **

Prosecutors from the @BrooklynDA Law Enforcement Accountability Bureau reached out to Rayne through us in around August of last year and as a result, in October, Rayne gave an interview, as well as consent to release certain medical records, to them

Also in October of 2020, we ID'd/confirmed the ID of NYPD Det. Amjad Kasaji, to @BrooklynDA Law Enforcement Accountability Bureau prosecutors, as the officer in the below still from Rayne's video and @OliviaMesser description published by @thedailybeast

thedailybeast.com/even-medical-w…

NYPD members had video of Rayne's beating, and his own account, immediately after it happened, on May 31, 2020.

I wonder if there have been or will be any NYPD consequences for any of the officers involved, or if the NYPD "investigation" will claim Rayne was non-compliant?🤔

@BrooklynDA has had the video and press accounts of Rayne's beating since June of 2020; the ID of at least one of the NYPD assailants since some time between then and October of 2020 at the latest; and an interview with, and medical records from, Rayne, since October of 2020...

I can't tell you what @BrooklynDA is thinking about bringing charges against NYPD Det. Amjad Kasaji and/or other NYPD officers who attacked Rayne Valentine, but I can tell you @BrooklynDA routinely prosecutes people who are not cops without hesitation, based on much, much less.

Whatever @BrooklynDA is or is not doing related to bringing charges against NYPD Det. Amjad Kasaji and/or others who attacked Rayne, the process so far does not inspire confidence, or trust, that prosecutors will take action, and at any rate, Rayne is not in the driver's seat

And then there are statements like those just reported in @frankrunyeon's @Law360 article below, from a @BrooklynDA spox who claims their office "combed through social media for evidence of police misconduct" but that the bar for prosecution is "high"

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status/1349886219296133120?s=20

Imagine having the resources at the disposal of @BrooklynDA to investigate - and, if necessary, identify - the police we all saw brutalizing protesters on social media and instead of using them to hold them accountable within your own punitive and carceral framework, you say this

Of course, in Rayne's case, those cop-outs don't apply: @BrooklynDA has had video, medical records, the identity of at least one of the NYPD perpetrators, Rayne's statement, and any other cooperation prosecutors have asked for, for months, and yet...nothing.

These stats on the numbers of Notices of Claim filed by protesters as of 1/11 related to police misconduct at last year's protests reported by @frankrunyeon @Law360 are real news. These are big numbers.

Here's @AshleyAtTimes on the AG's lawsuit, including this summary of Rayne's experience and comment from me:

nytimes.com/2021/01/14/nyr…

Here's @jruss_jruss for @CourthouseNews on the AG's lawsuit, including this comment from me:

https://twitter.com/CourthouseNews/status/1349816519237246978?s=20

In addition to Rayne, @LegallyFemme, @j_remy_green, @JessicaMassimi, and I represent others whose experiences are framed in the AG's lawsuit, including Dr. Marie DeLuca; 40 protesters brutalized and arrested; and 12 @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers detained in the NYPD attack on #FTP4

Here's how the AG's lawsuit frames the NYPD kettling of and attack on #FTP4

Here's what the AG's lawsuit has to say about the detentions of our @NLGNYCnews Legal Observer clients:

On June 7, 2020, just three days after the NYPD's June 4, 2020 attack on #FTP4, the @NLGNYCnews and attorneys for the Legal Observers first complained to the @NYPDnews @NYCMayor @JumaaneWilliams @TishJames and the NYC Law Department about the NYPD's targeting of NLG-NYC LO's

That June 7, 2020 letter called for the @nypdnews and other elected officials, as well as the New York City Law Department, to take immediate steps to address the targeting of Legal Observers, and to prevent NYPD members from targeting Legal Observers in that manner again

Despite those reasonable and specific demands, which were presented as necessary on an emergency basis, neither @NYPDNews nor @NYCMayor nor any other elected official or agency responded - and in fact, a number of @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers have since been arrested and prosected

Ten days later, @NYCBarAssn issued a “Statement on Detention of Legal Observers” calling on @NYCMayor and @NYPDShea to "immediately investigate" and demonstrate "that the consequences of any illegal targeting of legal observers...will be swift and severe"

s3.amazonaws.com/documents.nycb…

13 @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers gave written and oral statements to the @CCRB_NYC and @NewYorkStateAG regarding their investigations into @NYPDnews misconduct in attacking #FTP4 on June 4, 2020, including the Legal Observers' targeted detentions

On August 3, 2020, @NLGNYCnews attorneys representing those Legal Observers wrote @NewYorkStateAG @TishJames a letter, supported by numerous attachments, to supplement the record about the NLG-NYC Legal Observer arrests at #FTP4

The August 3, 2020 letter provided background on @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers, jail support volunteers, and their roles at protests, as well @NYPDNews policies covering Legal Observers and other bystanders at police activity scenes

The August 3, 2020 letter also described and documented both the requirement in @NYCMayor's Emergency Executive Order in operation on June 4, 2020 that arrests for purported curfew violations could only occur after dispersal orders and knowing refusals to comply, and...

...the fact that @NYCMayor @NYCMayorsOffice representatives had explicitly assured that @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers were exempt from the @NYCMayor's Emergency Executive Order as essential workers

The August 3, 2020 letter also amplified the details previously provided to the @NYPDnews @NYCMayor @NewYorkStateAG @JumaaneWilliams NYC Law Department and others on June 7, 2020 about how the @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers were targeted by a NYPD Legal Bureau attorney

Here's the video source of the stills depicting the @NYPDnews Legal Bureau attorney:

The August 3, 2020 letter also summarized the June 17, 2020 @NYCBarAssn statement on the @NYPDnews detentions of @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers, and the complete lack of response from any City - or any other - official to it

s3.amazonaws.com/documents.nycb…

And finally, the August 3, 2020 letter quoted and responded to the June 22, 2020 testimony @NYPDnews @NYPDShea gave to @TishJames about the June 4, 2020 #FTP4 Legal Observer arrests

(As an aside here, it's wild to me that @NYPDShea got a pass for this word salad at the time)

During this same time period, @hrw was conducting the investigations that would result in the groundbreaking report on the June 4, 2020 @NYPDnews attack on #FTP4 released on September 30, 2020

hrw.org/sites/default/…

In a July 31, 2020 letter from @hrw to @NYPDnews @NYPDShea, @hrw explicitly asked about whether the NYPD Legal Bureau attorney who had ordered and/or supervised the @NLGNYCnews Legal Observer detentions had been investigated and/or disciplined

hrw.org/sites/default/…

In the @NYPDNews September 16, 2020 response to @hrw, @NYPDShea doubled down on a number of completely false statements about @NYCMayor's curfew orders, which demonstrate either ignorance of or misrepresentations about the law..

hrw.org/sites/default/…

...for example, in the September 16, 2020 @NYPDNews letter, @NYPDShea says that officers who observed non-essential workers in public after 8PM on June 4, 2020 had probable cause to arrest those people for violating @NYCMayor's curfew order that was then in place....

...however, @NYCMayor's order itself, as well as the NYC Admin Code provision under which arrestees were charged, which the @NYPDNews @NYPDShea cite in their letter, required a knowing curfew violation *and* refusal to comply with a dispersal order before an arrest could be made

Also in the September 16, 2020 letter, @NYPDnews @NYPDShea falsely claimed that @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers were NOT exempt from @NYCMayor's curfew as essential workers.

The letter made no mention of the NYPD Legal Bureau attorney on the scene, or any potential discipline.

On October 2, 2020, just days after the @hrw report was released, @NYCMayor refuted the @NYPDnews @NYPDShea false statements that @nlgnycnews Legal Observers were not curfew exempt in response to a question from one of our clients live on @BrianLehrer

www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-…

However, as @jangelooff reported for @gothamist at the time, @NYCMayor never said "any police officers, including the NYPD Legal Bureau employee who oversaw the arrests" should be disciplined

gothamist.com/news/despite-d…

The December 18, 2020 @NYC_DOI report on its investigation into the NYPD response to the George Floyd protests states that @NYPDChiefofDept told DOI that the NYPD Legal Bureau attorney "made the determination authorizing the arrests of legal observers"

www1.nyc.gov/assets/doi/rep…

However, the @NYC_DOI report says nothing about any potential disciplinary consequences, or other actions taken by the @NYPDnews, designed to address that NYPD Legal Bureau attorney's targeting of @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers

So, as to the @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers detained as part of the June 4, 2020 @NYPDNews attack on #FTP4, beginning on June 7, 2020, and consistently through the present, we have repeatedly demanded that @NYPDnews @NYPDShea take immediate and concrete steps...

...to ensure that @NYPDnews members policing protests do not again target @NLGNYCNews Legal Observers for detention, arrest, or prosecution. We shared those demands with @NYCMayor, @JumaaneWilliams, and the NYC Law Department. Seven months after #FTP4, there has been no response.

Because @NYPDNews @NYPDShea and @NYCMayor turned blind eyes on the repeated pleas @NLGNYCnews attorneys made on behalf of the Legal Observers arrested during the June 4, 2020 attack on #FTP4, other Legal Observers were arrested in the months following the George Floyd protests.

In fact, I represent two @NLGNYCnews Legal Observers arrested at protests after June 4, 2020 who are currently facing prosecutions by @ManhattanDA and @BrooklynDA. Perhaps they would not have been arrested or prosecuted had @NYPDNews or @NYCMayor taken the actions we demanded.

I hope some of the above context can be helpful in evaluating fluff like this from @NYCMayor...

https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1339909095223144450?s=20

...and this from @NYPDnews...

https://twitter.com/gideonoliver/status/1349821745172271104

Both @NYCMayor and @NYPDnews are all too eager to embrace the recommendations in the @NYC_DOI and NYC Law Dept. reports produced at the Mayor's behest and without interviewing protesters who were arrested and brutalized or seeking their input into those recommendations....

I think the recommendations in those reports are so palatable to the @NYPDNews and @NYCMayor because they are so obviously self-serving compared to the demands for radical change that would have resulted from basic transparency or any, let alone real, community input...

...and because @NYPDNews and @NYCMayor know from experience that, no matter how many people NYPD members brutalize through their repressive protest policing tactics, or how publicly, or how much it costs taxpayers, neither the @NYCCouncil, nor any other City electeds or agency...

...will truly require honesty or transparency around these deeply-ingrained @NYPDNews policies, practices, and customs, let alone accountability, community control, or defunding...

Finally for the night, as I said earlier, people should settle for nothing short of real community control and accountability, along with public transparency, and never expect those things to come from lawsuits or elected officials alone...

Though there is a role for legal workers (including lawyers like me) in supporting actions and movements for police accountability, community control, and abolition, direct action in the streets has done more in the past few months than years of litigation to advance those causes

@threadreaderapp unroll