Review Clears Cops; Protesters Call Foul

After a five-month internal review, the police chief announced that local officers who pepper sprayed a crowd of anti-police brutality protesters amidst a tense, 12-hour standoff this summer ​“acted within the color of the law,” ​“were professional,” and will not be disciplined.

He also said the incident convinced the department to adopt different tactics in subsequent protests.

Police Chief Otoniel Reyes made that announcement Monday afternoon during a virtual press conference hosted on Zoom and YouTube Live.

The announcement comes nearly five months to the day after a May 31 Black Lives Matter protest that saw upwards of 1,000 people rally on the front steps and surrounding streets of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.

While the protest came the weekend after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, many of the protesters’ calls to action that day were locally focused — on finalizing the formation of the city’s Civilian Review Board, on no longer allowing the Hamden and Yale Police Departments to patrol in New Haven, and on suspending officers involved in a dispute and arrest at Walmart earlier that week.

It was one of a handful of inauspicious starts to a season of protest in New Haven and nationwide, with cops squared off against protesters in a way that escalated into the use of pepper spray. After that day, New Haven saw bigger protests — and the police stepped back, without any of the further confrontations that plagued other communities.

Some of the protesters who were pepper sprayed on May 31 responded Monday night with their own Zoom group interview with the press, during which they contested the police’s use of force investigation and conclusions. (See more below).

The Internal Affairs investigation into the May 31 encounter zeroed in on the most tense, and violent, moment of an otherwise overwhelmingly peaceful day.

That came soon after 6 p.m., when police pepper sprayed a group of protesters trying to advance past a line of officers who were blocking entrance to the closed building, and some protesters responding by throwing ​“projectiles,” including filled water bottles.

“We have reviewed every aspect of this incident,” Reyes said Monday. ​“Every officer involved in the protest that day acted within the color of the law. They were professional, and their behavior was consistent with” the values and standards of the New Haven Police Department. No officers will be disciplined, he said.

Reyes (pictured) said that one officer was hit in the face by a thrown bottle and suffered minor injuries. Police plan to arrest one of the protesters involved in tossing projectiles. That person was not one of the event organizers, Reyes said.

He also said that the department learned a valuable lesson during that day’s protest — ​“one of the first protests of many that we saw in the city” this summer, including a 5,000 person youth-led ​“Defund the Police” march the subsequent weekend.

Reyes said that those key lessons included that it would have made more sense to lock the door of a closed building, rather than station officers in a line outside of it. He also stressed the importance of police coordinating with organizers in advance of mass demonstrations.

Elicker (pictured) agreed during Monday’s presser. ​“I’ve learned a lot over the past six or so months about engaging as well,” he said. ​“I think one of the most important things I’ve learned is how important it is for me to be present at every possible place I can be.” Elicker had remained inside the police station for hours while protesters demanded to see him.

Contested Terrain

A review of the 58 body camera video clips and 17 police reports provided by the NHPD Monday — as well as a subsequent interview with over half-a-dozen protesters who were struck by police pepper spray that day — reveal a continuing gap between what police say happened and why, what protesters say happen and why, and what the evidence made public so far clearly, and not so clearly, show.

Here’s what the chief, the body camera footage, the officers reports, and the recollections of protesters who were there in the moment all agree on:

• Roughly 1,000 people marched from downtown, along the highway, and over to police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. midday on May 31. They were met by a line of dozens of officers, stationed in front of the closed building, which was blocked off by yellow caution tape and a chain link fence.

• After over five hours of passionate speeches before the standing officers, a group of protesters tried to move forward towards the entrance to the building.

• After issuing orders to stop, at least half a dozen officers deployed OC spray — or pepper spray — at the protesters, and pushed them back with batons and shields. Some protesters responded by throwing water bottles at the officers.

Here’s what the chief and the protesters differ on, and what’s unclear in the reports and video footage released so far:

• The police say that protesters threw bottles and batteries before and after the use of pepper spray. Protesters contend that several bottles were thrown only after the use of force, and that police have produced no evidence that a battery or batteries were thrown at all. (The video at the top of the story shows items being tossed at the 0:25 mark; it’s not clear to the viewer if that happened before or after the use of pepper spray. The video directly above shows bottles being thrown at the 0:15 mark; it does look like they were thrown before the first pepper spray. Only one of 17 police reports mentions batteries, and a majority of the reports indicate the throwing of objects after the use of pepper spray, but not necessarily before.)

• Police say that they had credible reason to believe that protesters wanted to break into police headquarters and potentially defile a memorial to officers killed in the line of duty, as was allegedly done by a similar group of protesters in Bridgeport the night before. Protesters argue that they tried to advance towards the building only in an attempt to talk with Mayor Elicker, who had Tweeted earlier in the day that he was on an upper floor of police headquarters. Protesters also said that police have presented no proof that a Bridgeport police station break-in happened the day before or that anyone in the New Haven crowd had been involved in it, if it did happen.

During a Monday night group Zoom interview, over a half dozen protesters and organizers who were pepper sprayed on May 31 argued that police escalated tensions by greeting a peaceful march and protest with a show of force that prioritized ​“property and power structures over people and justice,” as Hamden Town Councilman Brad Macdowall put it.

A public official made an announcement that he was in a public building, local anti-police brutality organizer Kerry Ellington said during that same Monday night interview.

“We went to that public place to express our public concern. And we were met with violence.”

Police do not create public safety, she said, stressing some of the key points of the nationwide reconsideration of the very role and purpose of policing that has taken place this summer and fall.

“The police cannot reform themselves. We need new revolutionary systems to keep our communities safe.”

Police Perspective

The supervisor’s report — written by Lt. Mark O’Neill — and the 16 supplemental reports written by a range of officers and supervisors in the hours and days after the May 31 protest provide a detailed look into the police perspective on what happened that day.

Again and again, reporting officers wrote that the several dozen officers present felt vastly outnumbered by the roughly 1,000 protesters. And they wrote that they were hyperaware of the burning and vandalization of police departments across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

“The crowd outnumbered the officers on the scene,” Officer Trent Dillon wrote in his supplementary report. ​“It should be noted across the country crowds have been overrunning police stations burning and vandalizing public property.”

“A contingent of officers secured the building in a response to the recent events across the country where police departments and precincts have been vandalized,” agreed Lt. Manmeet Colon in her separate report.

“It should be noted that the New Haven Police Department building was closed to the public at the time due to Covid-19,” wrote Officer Nicholas Gogliettino. ​“In addition, just prior to that day several Police Departments across the country were vandalized by protestors, including the Bridgeport CT Police Department.”

The officers also noted seeing some protesters carrying bottles filled with unidentified liquids, some wore goggles and masks as if they anticipated being pepper sprayed, and one person had a large stick that looked like a baseball bat. One officer also spotted a protester who allegedly had a knife.

Officer Evan Kelly, in his supplemental report, described the danger he saw the protesters posed, particularly when they didn’t heed the officer’s orders not to advance.

“When still refused entry,” he wrote, ​“the crowd began to push into the officers and I saw bottles of unknown liquid varying in size from 0.5L to 1gal being thrown at the unprotected uniformed officers. I am aware that a 0.5L bottle of water weighs approx 1.1 pounds, or more than twice the weight of a baseball and could very well inflict serious injury if it were to strike a person. I saw officers had begun to deploy pepper spray in attempts to deter the advancing mob of people when I heard the radio command that the Crowd Management team was to deploy.”

And many of the officer reports cite use of vulgar language and taunting by some of the protesters.

“My post consisted of standing on the front apron of 1 Union Ave, side by side with my brother and sister Officers to ensure a safe environment for a peaceful protest,” Officer Robert Stratton wrote. ​“I endured verbal taunts and explicit language/name calling through said experience.”

The officer reports state that they deployed pepper spray largely to deter the crowd from advancing on the police department, and that, once the crowd had been dispersed, they stopped.

“Confrontations between demonstrators and Police became more and more physical as the crowd of protestors announced that they were going to enter the locked down Police Department and take possession of ​‘the building that they own as taxpayers’,” wrote Sgt. David Guliuzza. ​“It was at this time that NHPD police personnel deployed OC Spray and physically denied the protestors access to the building. This was a successful deployment of reasonable use of force which stopped the advancing crowd of hostile protestors.”

That’s when the bottle throwing started, wrote Officer Jeffrey Rivellini. ​“Once Officers were able to stop protesters from rushing they then started throwing multiple objects at Officers,” he wrote. ​“I witnessed Officers being stuck by bottles.”

Some officers, like Eduardo Leonardo, described even more violent altercations with protesters. He wrote that a ​“male person then lunged forward toward me with both arms covering his face (in a torpedo like fashion). I attempted to push back this subject but it was ineffective. I subsequently punched the male subject about three times which impeded his movement forward. I then pushed said male back and deployed my OC spray at said male and two additional males in the vicinity that were attempting to bypass the barriers. This method was effective in controlling said subjects.”

Click here to read the supervisor’s report and all 16 supplemental officer and sergeant reports filled in the immediate aftermath of the May 31 protest.

Protester Perspective

During Monday night’s interview (which you can watch in full above), some of the protesters and organizers who had been pepper sprayed on May 31 painted a very different picture — one of a safe, peaceful, improvised and well-organized march that was greeted by force and transformed into a sad and painful night by police weapons.

“I didn’t even take a step forward, and without warning, I was hit in the face with pepper spray,” said Lindsay Buchanan. ​“It was cold and jarring and shocking, and felt like a very heavy moment. It felt like it came out of nowhere.”

Hamden Town Councilman Justin Farmer agreed. He said he had taken a step back, was on the phone, heard the chaos behind him, and then was hit with the spray.

“Police were literally pushing people down the stairs,” he said, ​“and spraying in people’s faces.” He said he couldn’t think of anything the protesters had done to escalate the situation to that level.

“Frankly, I’m disgusted to see what was put out today” by city police and the mayor, he said.

“I do not believe water bottles and battery packs, if they were thrown, they don’t kill,” said Gretchen Raffa. ​“Police violence does. All I saw in that moment was escalation, and not deescalation.”

Caroline Smith said that police claim to create a culture of public safety. But the only times she felt safe that day were when she was walking behind the lead organizers who had commandeered the streets, waited patiently for people of all abilities to keep up, and gracefully guided the group to 1 Union Ave.

“I didn’t feel safe when we came to the police department and we weren’t met with our mayor, but we were met with a line of police officers who were armed,” she said.

“Today was an attempt to gaslight and intimidate activists,” said Macdowall. ​“It was not a fact-finding mission. It was not an attempt to find the truth or find justice or move forward in an appropriate way with the community. It was an attempt to gaslight and intimidate protesters.”

Camila Güiza-Chavez said that all she would have liked to see from the police when protesters arrived on May 31 — and during the Monday presser — was ​“basic humanity.” Instead, she said, police treated protesters ​“like animals who needed to be herded.”

To watch all 58 body camera footage video clips from the May 31 protest as provided by the New Haven Police Department, click on ​“1/58” in the top right corner of the embedded video below. Also see below for New Haven Independent Facebook Live videos from May 31, and for a video recording of Monday’s presser.