Last week, the New York Attorney General's Office held two days of public hearings as part of an investigation into accounts of police using excessive force against protesters during recent demonstrations. At the time, NYPD officials claimed Commissioner Dermot Shea had not been invited to testify. But Attorney General Letitia James said that wasn't true, and briefly halted the scheduled testimony to publicly rebut the police department's claims.
On Monday morning, her office announced that Shea would speak after all.
In his testimony, Commissioner Shea broadly defended the police, saying they were faced with violent protesters. Shea insisted that any incidents of excessive force are not signs of systemic problems in the NYPD.
"It was immediate, these were different," Shea said. "The context of the protesters, the inclusion of outside agitators, and the almost immediate throwing of bottles, bricks, and things of that nature."
There has been no evidence behind claims that outside agitators provoked the violence from officers. But Shea said the NYPD has addressed some of the allegations against the police. He called a viral video of an officer violently shoving a young woman to the pavement during a demonstration in Brooklyn "disturbing"—that officer has now been suspended and is facing criminal charges. Another officer was disciplined for pulling down a protester's mask in order to pepper spray him. So far, the commissioner says about 10 officers have been disciplined.
"I think those incidents need to be fully investigated and people to speak the truth about individuals cases, and when the officers are wrong they need to be dealt with," Shea said.
The commissioner also defended officers who he said were justified by the situation, such as the cops who were filmed driving patrol vehicles into a crowd of protesters. Shea reiterated his stance that they feared for their lives after being surrounded. And he said another officer won't be disciplined for pulling a gun on a crowd near Union Square, because his supervisor had been struck in the head by an object.
Last week, dozens of people testified that they were injured by police during the protests, and in some cases were refused medical care after being arrested. The Attorney General's investigation is ongoing.