NYC vowed to reform its protest policing. A crackdown on a pro-Palestinian march is raising doubts

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy When New York City resolved a lawsuit brought by Black Lives Matter demonstrators last year by agreeing to overhaul how police respond to protests, Mayor Eric Adams praised the suite of reforms as sensible steps to “move our city forward.” But some civil rights lawyers are now questioning the mayor's commitment to the deal in the wake of the New York Police Department’s aggressive response to a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday. You were told to do it in a peaceful way,” said Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, adding that “when you cross over that line, there’s no tier to that.” Jennvine Wong, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society, which is a party to the federal lawsuit, said the mayor’s comments raised “serious concern about his commitment to meeting the city’s obligations under the settlement.” “It’s one thing to be working on the policy and not having finalized them yet, but it’s another for the leadership of this administration to act so cavalier and dismissive about the ways this police department is ignoring the reality that’s coming down the line,” she added. “They’re going to have to comply with every aspect of this settlement.” The settlement, which does not have a deadline for implementation, stems from a lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James that found a pattern of civil rights violations committed by police against protesters who took to the streets in New York in May 2020 following George Floyd’s death. In his comments on Tuesday, Adams suggested that many of those in the protests had come from beyond the neighborhood or the city, invoking his oft-repeated claim that outsiders who “don’t like our country” are working to “radicalize our children.” An NYPD highlight-reel style video after the protest criticized the clothing of the protesters and the flyers they allegedly circulated online.