NYC Ready For 'Any Outcome' On Chauvin Verdict, De Blasio Says

New York City NY

20 April, 2021

11:59 AM

Description

NEW YORK CITY — Jury deliberations in the trial of Derek Chauvin have prompted preparations for protests and unrest hundreds of miles away in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said he hoped to see "justice" in the death of George Floyd, who died last year while Chauvin — a Minneapolis police officer — had his knee on Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. "Preparation has been to be ready for any outcome," de Blasio said. "What I hope and pray is that justice is served and if people come out to in any way express themselves that they realize the power of peaceful protest, and we'll be ready to support peaceful protest and respect it. We'll certainly have enough officers ready and we've been preparing carefully and obviously learning lessons from the past as well how to do better." Video of Floyd's death inspired weeks of mass demonstrations in New York City and across the country, as well as a wave of police reforms. Some early demonstrations turned violent as protesters looted parts of Manhattan and set fire to police cars in Brooklyn. But such isolated unrest largely gave way to peaceful protests that NYPD officers responded to with heavy-handed tactics and outright violence, as detailed in a critical 111-page Department of Investigation report. NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison, a Black officer who was promoted in a wave of police reforms after the protests, said cops have been preparing for the Chauvin trial's end for about a month. "It's all hands on deck, all police officers right now are ready to go with the press of a button," he said. Harrison said police have learned lessons from the looting, as well as the DOI report.