A video screen grab shows members of the New York Police Department after clearing out protesters and securing the campus at Columbia University. (X / NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry)
NEW YORK (Tribune News Service) — The video begins over ominous music in an NYPD command center with top brass mulling over surveillance video of a man waving a Palestinian flag and ends with police officials talking tough about their crackdown on protesters at Columbia University Tuesday night.
“The conditions in this courtyard are deplorable. It smells bad. It just reeks … Lawlessness, that’s what this symbolizes,” says Kaz Daughtry, the deputy commissioner of operations, outside Columbia’s 90-year-old Butler Library. The video was posted May 1, the day after the raid.
“We’ll come there and we’ll shock you – take you to jail like we did over here.”
The tone of Daughtry’s remarks and the martial music point to a recent more aggressive theme in the department’s public relations strategy that comes at the same time a number of top brass are also being openly critical of journalists and NYPD detractors.
Critics say the NYPD is in danger of becoming overly political as it seeks to burnish its image, that there is a line between promoting good police work and taking a political stand on issues like bail reform or the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
They point to top brass proudly raising an American flag after arresting pro-Palestinian protesters at City College, and earlier comments made by NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell calling on Columbia and City College to expel “entitled” and “hateful” students engaged in the protests.
“They are supposed to be public servants, they are supposed to remain neutral, and this kind of politicking is inappropriate for police executives,” said Jennvine Wong, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society.
On Friday, Daughtry re-posted a comment by Chief of Transit Michael Kemper who wrote, “You should hear the vile, disgusting, hateful, & threatening words coming out of the mouths of far too many of these so called ‘peaceful protestors.’”
“They are treating government social media accounts as personal accounts and using the power of the state as a bully pulpit,” Wong said. “They are attacking journalist and elected officials, whose job it is to hold the Police Department accountable.”
Under the city charter, officials cannot use government resources, like official social media handles, to “electioneer,” or perform activity that’s political in nature. The federal Hatch Act has similar rules against such conduct.
The issue is become a source of intense friction in NYC political circles. Thirty-nine elected officials including two members of Congress on Friday called for Chell to be disciplined for his attacks on reporters by name and Council Member Tiffany Caban, The News first reported.
And late Friday, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called for a probe of police brass by the city Department of Investigation, saying their attacks are “dangerous, unethical and unprofessional.” “This recent behavior undermines public confidence in the department,” she wrote.
Observers also point out an overly dramatized message might be overshadowing the fact that hundreds of officers conducted a mass operation at two college campus without causing or suffering any serious injuries.
A video screen grab shows members of the New York Police Department clearing out spaces at Columbia University that had been taken over by protesters. (X /NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry)
“The video is alarming in its rhetoric, its tone and in the mere fact the NYPD thought it appropriate to create that video in the first place,” said Michael Sisitzky, associate policy director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“We saw them block access to the press and legal observers so instead of having independent sources there to document it, they sent in their own camera crews. The fact they focused on showing such a heavily militarized response to college students is equally alarming.”
Council Member Robert Holden (D-Queens) noted the video is unusual for the NYPD but not unheard of in government. The Obama administration famously released images from the Situation Room during the operation to kill Osama Bin-Laden.
“They (the NYPD) are usually matter of fact. They usually don’t editorialize,” Holden said. “Whether it’s right or not, it’s a social media world. Maybe they’re getting criticized for not being transparent enough and they are showing transparency.
“One thing I learned from the videos was how much damage was done.”
On Thursday night, it emerged a sergeant accidentally fired his gun in Columbia’s Hamilton Hall during a sweep for barricaded protesters – a moment that undermines the video’s message that all went perfectly.
“It just made all the cops’ jobs even harder,” said John Macari, a retired NYPD lieutenant and podcaster who has been critical of the current administration and has been in turn criticized by Daughtry on social media.
Macari pointed to a second video which shows Daughtry and Tarik Sheppard, the department’s chief spokesman, raising the American flag at City College after a Palestinian flag put up by protesters was pulled down.
“They are solely focused on perception It’s very ego driven,” Macari said, referring to the flag raising on a Pacific Island retaken by U.S. Marines on Feb. 23, 1945. “They wanted their Iwo Jima moment. If anyone it should have been the men and women who did the job.”
Mayor Adams praised the flag raising. “You don’t take over our buildings and put another flag up,” Adams said. “It’s despicable that schools will allow another country’s flag to fly in our country.”
David Cook, an executive television producer and writer for true crime shows, said it was clear the producers of the Hamilton Hall video had the idea to make a mini-movie in advance and carried it out.
“These are fairly well put together, albeit a bit clunky and cheesy,” said Cook, whose work has appeared on networks including Hulu, ABC, Lifetime, F/X, Oxygen and the Food Network.
“A producer/camera person was obviously in from the early stages and they decided to put it together like a heist/military ops scene with a beginning, climax and epilogue aka warning, including scoping the location.”
In a statement, a NYPD spokesperson said the videos were done in-house by personnel with the department’s public information office.
Daughtry, the statement said, was merely pointing out factually that urine and feces were found in the tent site and Hamilton Hall at Columbia. The audience, the statement said, is New Yorkers who want safety in the streets and on campus.
“The NYPD utilized our highly trained uniformed members of the service, who did not know what to expect, and carried out their duties in a calm, organized and precise manner and no one was injured during these events,” the unnamed spokesperson said describing the message of the videos.
The remark about “shocking” people was a reference to “the skill of our specialty units” which can “address conditions presented in an expeditious manner.”
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