Latest in a series of posts responding to the George Floyd killing

From the Black Lives Matter Lehigh Valley Facebook page: Below is a resolution that will be brought before Allentown City Council on Wednesday that addresses many of the specific demands we made at Monday’s protest.

Resolved by the Council of the City of Allentown, That

WHEREAS, Allentown City Council is committed to a dialogue that includes examining police operations, legislative and community oversight, requiring certain reporting requirements and establishing a policy on force; and

WHEREAS, Allentown City Council supports along with the Human Relations Commission the Eight Can’t Wait recommendations from the Obama administration related to the use of police force; and

WHEREAS, City Council will meet on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 at 6:00 PM to begin to take public comment and work on recommendations for policing in Allentown; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of Allentown will foster a dialogue inclusive of but not limited to reviewing, discussing and adopting some of the following:

Making Body cam usage mandatory – if not used then face discipline including termination;

Require that Allentown Police Department (APD) inform council of any changes to the Civil Rights, discipline and use of force policies and that if any of those changes effect adherence to 8 Can’t Wait, and if there are any changes council must vote on the change;

Explicitly adopt of policy that no knock warrants are banned;

Remove any exceptions for chokehold and neck restraints from the use of force policy;

Explicitly state that stop and frisk is banned;

Explicitly state that officers have a duty to intervene in any excessive use of force and that there are discipline consequences including termination for not doing so;

Establish by legislation a Citizens Review Board that reviews among other things for cases of excessive force and when a weapon is discharged;

Require Bi-annual reports of use of force, discipline, positive interactions, policy changes and types of calls/responses that are disaggregated by race and gender to be given and discussed at Council’s Public Safety at a public meeting.

Provide that misuse of force situations are immediately given to the attorney general (3rd party);

Officers who are suspected of violating the use of force policy and are under investigation are immediately placed on suspension while the investigation is conducted, this should be automatic, so the public has peace of mind and officers have accountability;

A quarterly reporting requirement that contains a breakdown of the nature of calls in Allentown, i.e. reason for call: mental health, domestic disturbance, violent crime, traffic accident, and an annual report. The report should be made public immediately following their release;

Make body camera footage available to the public and easily accessible with no delays in its release;

Begin to draft a plan of divestment of resources currently allocated to the police department to other areas or sectors of the city such as mental health, housing, drug & alcohol treatment,social services, etc;

Mandatory community meetings following use of force incidents to contend with the psychological ramifications and fear that emerges from the use of lethal use of force and force community concerns to be fielded and responded to.

Be It Also Resolved that City Council Effectuate such recommendations through legislative action as possible through amending your code or asking legislators to change.

Be it Finally Resolved that these recommendations be considered and reviewed no later than three months after passage of this resolution.

Latest in a series of posts responding to the George Floyd killing

You can see the full 9-minute video here.

from Daniel Patrick Sheehan and Manuel Gamiz, Jr. “Did Allentown police do anything wrong in video that sparked protests?” Morning Call, July 14, 2020.

When Kutztown University criminal justice professor Arthur Garrison saw the video of Allentown police officers struggling to subdue a man Saturday outside a hospital, what caught his attention wasn’t an officer’s knee on the man’s head but the indifference the officers displayed toward a man who clearly needed help.

“It is clear the police were interested in control of the man, not providing medical aid as a primary goal,” he said. “So the use of force follows. It’s a reflection of a warrior model of policing where the first thing is domination and control.”

“They were at the entrance of the emergency room and they see a man vomit in the street and need help and they just stand there watching him,” Garrison said. “They did not immediately rush to provide aid. Their indifference was the first thing that struck me.”

According to court documents posted Tuesday, Edward Borrero Jr., 37, of Allentown, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, as well as a summary offense of public drunkenness. It does not appear that he was taken into custody.

The cellphone video brought an immediate response from protesters, who marched Saturday night to a police substation at 10th and Hamilton streets, demanding answers. On Monday night, they were joined by hundreds of others, who called for the officer’s arrest and the defunding of the department.

Emanuel Kapelsohn, an Allentown consultant who teaches firearm and use-of-force techniques to police and helps agencies craft use-of-force policies, said it was no surprise that the Allentown video, a distressing echo of the Floyd arrest, sparked outrage and protests.

Kapelsohn said he was as appalled as anyone at Floyd’s slow asphyxiation under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. But what happened in Allentown was distinctly different, he said.

“I don’t see anything wrong,” he said, of the placement of the Allentown officer’s knee. Kapelsohn — an attorney and reserve deputy sheriff who has been an expert witness in state and federal use-of-force trials — said the positioning of the officer’s knee, which lasted about eight seconds, didn’t constitute a neck restraint, which is banned by Allentown’s use-of-force policy, and posed no risk of cutting off the man’s air supply or the blood flow to his brain.

The events leading to the struggle are important to consider in judging what happened, he added.“ This was someone obviously in some kind of distress,” Kapelsohn said. “The police and hospital personnel are coming to help and that’s for his benefit, not theirs.”

Garrison — the Kutztown professor whose book “Chained to the System: History and Politics of Black Incarceration in America” comes out next month — said he saw more issues before the officer placed a knee on the man’s head.

“He wasn’t threatening, and that’s the issue that you look at when you look at police use of force,” he said. “When the cops came at him, he got on his knees and was submissive and the first thing they did was reach for their handcuffs, not see what was wrong with him.

“There’s two ways police see the world, either a warrior model or a guardian model,” which he said is a policing mindset focused on protecting citizens.

Another thing Garrison found interesting about the video was seeing two hospital staff members wave away a car that was slowing down as it passed the encounter, blocking the view of the police restraining the man.

“The nurses first engage by protecting the police,” he said. “Only when he is handcuffed do the nurses provide any attention and place some kind of hood over his head. Then they finally walk him to the emergency room.”

Kapelsohn said the reaction to the video is understandable because of what he called hypersensitivity in the wake of the Floyd killing.

In that case, he said, “that officer seems to be torturing him.”

Garrison said that while the knee to the man’s head and neck was brief, “you would think in the post-Floyd world, the officer would not have done such a thing.”

“If you have your knee to somebody’s neck, on concrete, he’s not going anywhere and that’s the point of domination and control,” he said. “It’s this kind of attitude and approach that can lead to a man dead under the police knee.”

Latest in a series of posts about the Bethlehem Police

On the City Facebook page: “Last evening we kicked off the first monthly meeting of the Community Advisory Board — sponsored by the local NAACP and President Lee — with Mayor Donchez and 23 members of the community participating. The city’s Use of Force Policy and the responsibilities of the city’s professional standards unit were discussed.‬”

As of 8am this morning, there were two comments to the post: “Was this a secret???” and “Was this invite only?”

Exactly Gadfly’s sentiments.

Gadfly ventures to say that there’s a kind of hunger in the wider “community” for such a presentation and subsequent discussion.

Will there be a report on the meeting? Gadfly has been confused about how this group fits into the need for local public discourse responding to the George Floyd murder.

He hopes that the local press was there and that we’ll see an article on the meeting.

Who are the members of the “Community Advisory Board”? Below is a list.

At the very least, one wonders about representatives from Black Lives Matter on the Board. At the very least, one would hope that the activists who spoke at Council July 7 were present and participating last night.

Gadfly hopes that the police presentation will be repeated at the Community Engagement Initiative the Mayor may be forming per the City Council resolution and a Council Public Safety Committee meeting now in limbo because of COVID-19.

7/13/20 Community Advisory Board Membership

Robert Donchez, Mayor

Esther Lee, President Bethlehem Unit NAACP

City Council – Grace Crampsie-Smith, Michael Colon

Northampton County Executive – Lamont McClure

NAACP – Tomacene Nickens, Rabbi Levy,  Carl Nelson

Clergy – Rabbi Michael Singer, Canon Dale Grandfield

Education – Dr. Roy, Superintendent BASD

Health Department – Kristen Wenrich

Homeless – Bob Rapp, BES

Latino Advisor – Cesar Cordova, Vivian Robledo Shorey, Olga Negron,  Yadira Colon-Lopez

Youth (2) – Spencer Williams, Sydney Duffy

Police – Chief Mark DiLuzio

Police Union – Bill Audelo, President and (to be named)

Teacher’s Union – Laura Keding, President

Representative Steve Samuelson

Alex Karras, Chief of Staff

Latest in a series of posts responding to the George Floyd killing

from Michelle Merlin and Andrew Scott, “More than 200 march, demand change following video showing officer kneeling on man.” Morning Call, July 13, 2020.

More than 200 protesters gathered Monday evening in downtown Allentown in response to a Saturday night video, taken outside outside St. Luke’s Hospital-Sacred Heart, showing a police officer kneeling on a man’s head, near his neck.

Carrying banners stating “Black Lives Matter” and chanting “Defund the police” and “No justice, no peace,” the racially diverse crowd gathered at the Allentown Civil War memorial in response to what the video showed.

“I’m tired of this …, ” protester Rodney Bushe said to the crowd. “I’m tired of witnessing brothers and sisters with knees on their necks. I can’t breathe.”

They demanded the officer’s name, suspension and arrest; that police be defunded; an external investigation; and that elected officials either do more to end police officers’ unnecessary use of force or vacate their seats.

“These politicians try to act like we are savages who can’t manage ourselves,” said Arthur Benson, a member of the Lehigh Valley Black Lives Matter group and Action Town Activists. “We haven’t been allowed to have a seat at the table.”

Speakers at the event decried that police were violent toward a man vomiting outside a hospital who was in need of medical attention, not police force. They called for the city to defund the police and put the money toward education, mental health services and social services instead.

Zahnia Richardson attended the protest and said she found the video of the man outside the hospital disheartening. She supports the idea of defunding the police.

“I feel like a lot of the issues you need police for stem from lack of education, lack of mental health support. You could take from police funding and put it toward [things like that],” she said.

Jimmeka Hernandez, who participated in the the protest, said the video upset her. She said her children saw it and asked if it was real life or a movie.

“We educate our kids that police aren’t the enemy, but there’s a lot of police officers that aren’t doing their jobs correctly,” she said.

The crowd took a knee when Chantel Jenkins, the mother of one of four teenagers charged with inciting a riot during a January basketball game at Whitehall High School spoke. She told protesters her “worst nightmare came true,” when she saw police arresting her son and taking him into custody.

The Allentown branch of the NAACP on Sunday night issued a statement saying the video was “concerning and disturbing.” They said that once the investigation into the incident is complete, they’ll have more discussions.

“As the Allentown Police Department works through their new police policy protocols, we want them to ensure us that they are acting in a manner of integrity that shows both respect and safety for its citizens,” they said in the statement. They did not attend the rally, Secretary Barbara Redmond said in an email.

Latest in a series of posts responding to the George Floyd killing

from Andrew Scott, “Nine-minute video shows man outside hospital before officers approach, police takedown, aftermath,” Morning Call, July 13, 2020.

Allentown police on Monday released a nine-minute video showing a man kneeling, then objecting when officers put their hands on him before they forcefully restrained him, with one officer kneeling on the man’s head, near his neck, Saturday outside St. Luke’s Hospital-Sacred Heart.

The video was posted on the police department’s website as the city tries to quickly investigate the encounter, 23 seconds of which were caught on a video posted on social media Saturday. That footage showed the officer kneeling on the man, in a hold similar to the one that killed George Floyd when he was arrested by Minneapolis police. The Saturday video sparked protests in Allentown.

The video released Monday, taken from across the street from the hospital, shows the man walking slowly, almost staggering, on the road in front of the hospital and experiencing what police said appears to be a mental health crisis or drug or alcohol impairment. The officers were at the hospital on another matter when they noticed him.

The video shows the man appearing to vomit several times as he comes onto the sidewalk, drop his cellphone and have trouble walking and standing. The police gesture toward the emergency room entrance, suggesting he should go inside.

The video shows the man straighten up after he finishes vomiting. He then staggers backward into the road and an approaching car swerves around him. He then starts walking away from the officers, in the direction from which he had come, but then turns back.

About four minutes into the silent video, the man seems to gesture to two officers with his arms outstretched as they approach. As they get close, he kneels down, with his hands clasped beneath his chin before continuing to gesture and point. He briefly starts to rise to his feet, then kneels again as they come closer. He also appears to be talking to several hospital staff outside. When the officers try to pull his hands behind him, he tries to pull away.

Almost five minutes into the video, one of the officers appears to trip the man to bring him to the ground. He falls to the ground and police quickly kneel at his side to restrain him.

Shortly thereafter comes the scene caught in the video that was posted to social media, where an officer kneels on the man’s head, near his neck, for about eight seconds.

The video continues afterward, showing a spit mask being placed over the man’s head. The final minutes of the video show police and hospital staff escorting the man into the hospital, where police said he was treated and then released.

Latest in a series of posts responding to the George Floyd killing

Kayla Dwyer, “Protesters confront Allentown mayor, police Saturday night about video of officer kneeling on man’s neck.” Morning Call, July 12, 2020.

A large group gathered Saturday night in downtown Allentown to demand answers from the Allentown Police Department and Mayor Ray O’Connell about a video taken earlier in the day that showed an officer pressing his knee into a man’s neck during an arrest.

A video circulated Saturday night on social media showing officers arresting a man outside St. Luke’s Hospital-Sacred Heart on West Chew Street in Allentown.

The video, less than 30 seconds long and taken from an unknown person’s car, shows three officers arresting the man. One of the officers appears to put his shoulder and elbow on the man’s back before pressing his knee on his neck.

Both O’Connell and Allentown police Chief Glenn Granitz Jr. showed up to the protest to answer questions and acknowledged they had seen the video. Granitz said there will be an investigation.

Speaking to some of the protesters Saturday night, O’Connell called the video “disturbing,” but said, “I think we need to gather all the facts and information before we go forward.”

The group first gathered at Seventh and Hamilton streets around 11 p.m. Saturday, after Hasshan Batts, executive director of Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, issued a call to action in a live Facebook video.

“Where are we going to make it loud and clear that this is not OK?,” he said, en route to the meeting spot. “If this is not OK to you, meet me on Seventh and Hamilton, right now.”

They then marched to the police precinct at 10th and Hamilton, with chants such as “Say his name, George Floyd,” the Minneapolis man who was killed in May after an officer knelt for nearly nine minutes on his neck.

Some knocked repeatedly on the doors and windows of the precinct while others blocked the street out front, continuing chants like “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

Some also made phone calls to the precinct and to the mayor.

O’Connell arrived shortly before midnight, and Granitz soon after.

Protesters asked for the name of the officer who pressed his knee against the man and asked Granitz for his response to what he saw in the video.

“As a human being, a knee on the neck, is that OK?” asked Maegan Llerena, director of Make the Road Pennsylvania.

“We’re going to take a look at it. We’re going to go through everything. And we’re going to give you an update as soon as we can,” Granitz responded.

“I don’t have a 24-hour, 48-hour time table for you,” Granitz said when a resident asked how long an investigation would take.

The protest ended around 12:30 a.m. Batts took to the megaphone to urge a peaceful dispersal, saying two point people would be following up with police.

Granitz could not give many details about the video Saturday night.

“I just got here, and I’m here to look at it,” he told protesters gathered in a circle around him. “I’ve seen a short clip.”

“Just be on the right side of this,” a protester said to him.

“I will be on the right side of it, whatever it is,” Granitz responded.

Latest in a series of posts responding to the George Floyd killing

from Daniel Patrick Sheehan, “Video of Allentown police officer kneeling on man’s neck: Woman who took it says she was shocked, and George Floyd’s attorney weighs in.” Morning Call, July 12, 2020.

The woman who shot a video outside St. Luke’s Hospital-Sacred Heart in Allentown, Pa., that shows a police officer putting his knee on a man’s head and neck during an arrest said the man was screaming “Mira, mira!” — Spanish for ‘Look, look!‘”

“That means he knew what was going on and he was screaming for someone like me to see,” said the woman, an Allentown resident who doesn’t want her name made public and uses a pseudonym on Facebook.

Assistant Chief Bill Lake said the incident came under immediate review, in keeping with the department’s use-of-force policy.

“As soon as this came to light, we got the ball rolling,” he said. Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said his office will review Allentown’s conclusions, adding he can’t comment on the case until that process is done.

The video, less than 30 seconds long, shows one of the officers putting his shoulder and elbow on the man’s back before pressing his knee on his head and neck.

The video is already garnering national attention — including from attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents Floyd’s family.

Mayor Ray O’Connell and Allentown police Chief Glenn Granitz Jr. showed up to the protest to answer questions. O’Connell called the video “disturbing,” but said, “I think we need to gather all the facts and information before we go forward.”

Granitz added that he couldn’t say when the investigation would be finished. “I don’t have a 24-hour, 48-hour time table for you,” he said.

Through its Facebook page, the local Black Lives Matter group said it is awaiting official statements from the city before deciding what to do next.

Meanwhile, the group has issued six demands: that the body camera footage of the arrest be released; that all officers involved be suspended pending an external investigation; that the mayor, police chief and city council president make a public statement; that the man’s name and medical condition be released; that a criminal justice review board be put in place to oversee Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton; and that Allentown reallocate funds from the police department “into the community.”

On Twitter, Allentown Councilman Joshua Siegel, who was at the protest, said he was “disgusted and outraged” and made similar demands, including the officers’ suspension and the release of names and body camera footage.

Siegel’s council colleague, Ce-Ce Gerlach, who also attended the protest, posted a video to Facebook in which she said she felt “raw” over the incident.

“That’s why I went down [to the protest] last night,” she said. “Not as a City Council member but as a resident that wants to see justice here in Allentown.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild issued a statement Sunday calling the video “sickening” and “yet another instance of unwarranted force against a Black man.” She pointed to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act recently passed by the House, which would prohibit the use of this kind of force across the country, among other reforms.

“We cannot continue to allow the lethal combination of systemic racism and excessive use of force to rot our system of justice,” she wrote.

Also on Twitter, state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, who represents Allentown, said he was horrified when he saw the video and stressed the importance of a thorough investigation.

“The protestors last night were chanting ‘Black Lives Matter’ for a reason,” he wrote. “You’d have to be heartless to not hear the pain and anger in their voices, or the trauma in the voice of the man in the video saying, ‘I thought we mattered.’ I can’t unhear his voice.”

Latest in a series of posts responding to the George Floyd killing

or is it his head

close enough

can’t make this up

and just after we praised the Allentown Police recruiting video

CBSPhilly,com newscast video