Families, Mott Haven residents petition NYPD, demand accountability for brutality against protesters

A group of families and residents of Mott Haven in the South Bronx have released an open letter demanding accountability for the NYPD’s brutality against peaceful protesters in the Bronx.

The demand was pressed on Sunday January 17, 2021, at a press conference where a petition was released to demand accountability for the NYPD’s June 4 attack on peaceful protesters.

Mott Haven Families, a local group of families and resident, was horrified by the NYPD’s brutality against the protesters.

“We will not allow the NYPD’s violence on June 4th to be forgotten. We fully support the Attorney General’s lawsuitagainst the NYPD calling for accountability through structural changes and external oversight. However, we also argue that the individuals who planned or carried out the attack must be held individually accountable, ” the letter reads.

It adds, “They must be identified, fired, forced to resign, or otherwise disciplined. The NYPD assault on peaceful protesters was illegal and brutal. Neither those who issued the orders to attack protesters nor those who carried them out should be allowed to stay employed by the NYPD.

“The officers who wielded their batons to beat protesters have no place in the NYPD. Chief of Department Monahan, who led the police assault, has no place in the NYPD.”

The letter says that Deputy Inspector Gallitelli, the head of the 40th Precinct, who ordered his entire precinct out to attack peaceful protesters and coordinated with ICE agents in violation of the Sanctuary City Policy, has no place in the NYPD.

The letter further demands that the 40th Precinct—specifically Deputy Inspector Gallitelli—and Commissioner Shea must release a detailed report on who was involved in planning and executing the June 4th assault, and in what ways, including any elected officials or other city or federal government officials.

It also demands that the officers who either planned or carried out violence on June 4th against peaceful protesters, and those who collaborated with ICE agents in our neighborhood must be terminated.

“Council Members Diana Ayala, Rafael Salamanca, and Vanessa Gibson must call for an additional investigation into the actions of the 40th Precinct to discover individual actors who planned and carried out the June 4th attack.

“he must also advocate for defunding the police and for reform measures as outlined in the DOI report and OAG report as described above. Mott Haven needs more funding for schools, parks, recreation centers, job placement and housing security—not more police,” the letter reads.

“As a kid and resident of Mott Haven, I will not stand for this blatant disregard to people’s rights. I will fight until this is over, and it will only be over when the police live up to their image, or step down,” Cadence Epting, child organizer with Mott Haven Families

“Right now, the culture within the department to serve and protect one another is rotting the department’s ability to serve and protect New Yorkers. Violent police cannot keep the peace in our community, and we won’t stand for it anymore,” Amanda Septimo, Assemblymember for the 84th District of the New York State Assembly

“On June 4th, The NYPD brought the full force of its oversized budget down on people who were doing nothing more than demanding justice for the police killings of black and brown people. Officers dressed from head to toe with military armor, tear gassed, body slammed, and stomped out our fellow Bronxites,” Conrad Blackburn, Attorney, Immigration Practice, Bronx Defenders

“The violence committed by NYPD against peaceful Black Lives Matter protests right here on June 4th was not an isolated incident, just the most recent & egregious example of the normal, regular, every day state sanctioned terror we endure here in the South Bronx,” Richie Merino, organizer with Mott Haven Families