PHR found that the four health workers’ accounts corroborated the reports of police violence. In light of these disturbing national trends, PHR sought to document the health workers’ experiences on June 4 in Mott Haven to further public understanding of ongoing human rights violations against protestors and medics across the country. As Black Lives Matter protests continued over the course of the summer of 2020, so, too, did reports of police violence against protestors and attacks on street medics across the country. PHR reached out to four of the street medics – three physicians and a nurse, all based in New York City – to better understand the events of that night. The reports that police officers had interfered with injured protesters’ access to care from the volunteer medics and arrested the medics – who had attended the demonstration to provide medical assistance to the demonstrators and not to protest – were of particular concern to PHR, given our long history of advocacy for the protection of health workers and access to health care in the context of conflict and civil unrest. Among the many disturbing images from that night were those of volunteer medics in scrubs, standing handcuffed near unmasked police officers during a global pandemic. Senate committee just weeks ago: “None of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred,” he said.In June 2020, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) learned of reports of severe police use of force against protesters, street medics, and others at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Mott Haven, the Bronx on June 4. 6.” Sund repeated this assertion in testimony in front of a U.S. Metropolitan Police (MPD)-indicated that a well-coordinated, armed assault on the Capitol might occur on Jan. He wrote in a letter, “Perfect hindsight does not change the fact that nothing in our collective experience or our intelligence-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and D.C. The former Capitol Police chief, Steven Sund, resigned almost immediately. With around 140 officers injured and one dead, there was some passing of the buck in the immediate aftermath of the riot. Bolton, presented at a Capitol Hill hearing today, portrays a police force that recklessly disregarded intelligence and hobbled its own response at every turn. A damning new report by the Capitol Police’s own inspector general, Michael A. I’d never seen law enforcement show this level of restraint at any protest, much less a riot. Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. In one of the only direct interactions I saw, a Capitol officer asked a rioter to put out a cigarette, then walked away.
Some rioters stopped to ask them for directions. Some were equipped with riot gear, others not, but most just stood there and watched. When I did, it was even more surreal: They looked as if they were there loitering themselves. Once I was inside, too, I saw no officers at all for a stretch, as rioters plundered and destroyed furniture. The officers had somehow gotten the doors back closed, but within minutes, rioters were easily pushing past them again.
At the entrances to the building, there were a few Capitol Police officers helplessly trying to hold a line at the doors, but they were vastly outnumbered. Instead, I easily walked into the Capitol perimeter. I expected police in military gear and a response as aggressive as I’ve come to anticipate covering and observing protests over the past year, where a single water bottle thrown at a cop line can bring a volley of tear gas and percussion grenades in retaliation. 6 alongside Donald Trump’s supporters and heard some of them had breached the building ahead, I expected the situation to escalate sharply.