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24 Minutes In Mott Haven
By
Jami Floyd
Published Jun 4, 2021
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C.S. Muncy/Gothamist
By
Jami Floyd
Published Jun 4, 2021
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On June 4, 2020, protesters gathered at 149th Street and 3rd Avenue, in Mott Haven. They met at the Hub — the civic and cultural center of the South Bronx — to listen to speakers, pass around water and face masks, and meet the call to ”take the streets.”
One week had passed since people — enraged and politically energized over the murder of George Floyd — began a new protest movement in America, demanding government accountability for the health inequities and gross economic inequality laid bare by COVID, as well as radical reform of a criminal justice system rooted in the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
New York City, then the epicenter of the pandemic, was also a hotbed for this new activism. And nowhere was the anger and energy of the movement felt more so than in the Bronx, an over-policed and under-resourced borough of mostly Black and brown New Yorkers.
Two groups, Take Back the Bronx and Bronxites for NYPD Accountability (aka Why Accountability) put out the call on social media to “take back the streets” on June 4th, targeting the NYPD with a photo of a burning NYPD SUV, and the phrases “Fuck Yo Curfew,” “The City is Ours!” and “24 Hours Till Go Time!!”
But whether any of the few hundred protesters who showed up in Mott Haven that night were interested in committing any actual property damage or violence is unclear. And in fact, as it rolled out, the protest was entirely peaceful.
Until the police moved in to enforce a new city-wide 8 p.m. curfew—before 8 p.m.
The governor and mayor imposed the curfew after looting occurred elsewhere in the city. They expanded it—from 11 p.m. to 8 p.m.—on June 1st, only exacerbating tensions amongst city officials, activists, NYPD and the communities they police.
When the curfew arrived at 8 p.m. on June 3rd on the Upper East Side, police officers used a public address system to ask hundreds of protesters to disperse. Approximately 60 protesters who did not comply were arrested.
But the next night in Mott Haven, the police—unprovoked and without warning—closed in on protesters about ten minutes before the curfew, a solid phalanx of officers on bicycles stopping the protesters from moving forward, just as the PA announcement began to blare. At the same time, another group of bike cops moved in from behind, fencing-in demonstrators on 136th Street near Brook Avenue.
When the clock struck eight and the curfew fell, there was nowhere for the people to go. They were trapped.
This is how law and disorder happened in just 24 Minutes in Mott Haven
We went there to protest police brutality and became victims of police brutality.
Andom
I can remember and recall hearing bones cracking, people screaming, and just blood.
Selenah
I saw officers in uniform climbing on top of cars with their batons beating into the crowd. I saw some of them smiling while they were doing it.
Ikaika
"As my hands were being put behind my back I was still being punched."
Jay
"I see one of the officers take his baton out and hit my brother. And I think that was the moment for me to realize that we’re being arrested."
Helen
I was struck in the head, and I believe I lost consciousness … The next memory I had was a police officer dragging me by my hair, out of the crowd, face down.
Danny
Police arrested 263 people, more than at any other protest in New York last summer. Some were released later that night; others the next afternoon. One was held for a week. Most were charged with Class B misdemeanors for curfew violations or unlawful assembly. That means they received summonses or desk appearance tickets.
At a news conference the next day, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea confirmed the premeditated nature of the operation saying, “We had a plan which was executed nearly flawlessly in the Bronx.”
While he later apologized for any instances of police misconduct during the protests, Shea also demanded that protesters stop insulting and attacking police officers, and warned that anti-police rhetoric would lead to continued violence.
“For there to be calm, there must also be contrition,” Shea said. “So I am sorry. Sometimes even the best — and the N.Y.P.D. is the goddamned best police department in the country — but sometimes even the best fall down.”
A legal observer from the National Lawyers Guild is arrested in Mott Haven in the Bronx in June 2020.
CS Muncy / Gothamist
He added, “So for our part in the damage to civility, for our part in racial bias, in excessive force, unacceptable behavior, unacceptable language and many other mistakes, we are human. I am sorry. Are you?”
When asked for comment specifically about this project, an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement: “The NYPD is committed to fairness and transparency and officers work around the clock to keep every New York City neighborhood safe. Working in close partnership with the communities we serve is paramount to having a safe New York City. Since last year, based on the recommendations of the Department of Investigation report, we have modified and adapted our practices. The DOI report found that the Mott Haven arrests were lawful, but also found that there were alternatives to the mass arrests that should have received more consideration.”
Shea also discussed Mott Haven in an interview with WNYC on June 9th:
Beyond the city’s own Department of Investigation, Human Rights Watch issued a 99-page report which found that the NYPD's conduct during the Mott Haven protest violated human rights, civil rights protections of the U.S. Constitution, and the NYPD's own Patrol Guide.
The New York Attorney General Leticia James is also suing the NYPD for excessive use of force — and calling for a federal monitor of the NYPD based, in part, on the events in Mott Haven on June 4, 2020.
Multiple individual and class action lawsuits have also been filed. And one group of protesters, calling itself the Mott Haven Collective, sent a demand letter to the City Comptroller asking him to create a reparations fund to compensates the individuals injured in the protest, as well as the South Bronx community which the Collective alleges has suffered systematic and racialized police violence for decades.
For more about what happened in Mott Haven and what is still happening now, listen to this episode the United States of Anxiety.
Listen to Jami Floyd discuss 24 Minutes in Mott Haven on WNYC’s All Things Considered:
This project is produced by the WNYC/Gothamist Race & Justice Unit which explores systems of inequity and oppression.
Jami Floyd is the Senior Editor for Race and Justice at WNYC/Gothamist. If you have a tip for her, she’s on Signal and WhatsApp. Or you can message her on Twitter @jamifloyd.
David McLean is the Video Producer on this project.
Amy Pearl is the Assistant Video Producer.
Wayne Shulmister is the Technical Director.
Jodi Malarbe is the research assistant and intern.
Tagged
mott haven
George Floyd
bronx
nypd
Race And Justice Unit
protests
Jami Floyd
Jami Floyd is the former Director, Race & Justice Unit at New York Public Radio.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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