For anyone who hasn’t gone online to see the numerous videos recorded on May 2 by the students who attended the protest to see who was bluffing at the SUNY New Paltz university campus, the video on the Internet strings together a selection of moments worth watching.
One video, which appears to have been recorded up high from a dorm window, captures the state troopers as they arrive, marching in double file towards the stairs between Bliss Hall and Gage Hall, at the top of which they would enter the quad to form their line and begin their advance.
This is the mobile field unit, utilized specifically for crowd control.
They are holding their batons in one hand as baseball bats as they march. One trooper can be seen hitting himself over his heart with his baton, presumably psyching himself up before the coming confrontation with the college students.
There’s been much made of the brutality attributed to the actions state troopers had taken against the students, but over the two hours I was there taking pictures I didn’t witness anything worse than students taken in hand, thrown to ground, dragged across the grass, and zip-tied.
The actions I witnessed were not sadistic, just callous, and not brutal, just indifferent, and it should be considered for a moment that the troopers themselves might also have been scared – a situation which tends to make one more heavy-handed.
The protesters being arrested sat in a ring. It was only possible in the darkness to observe half the advancing troopers, who chose intermittently to charge forward.
Arms locked with the person on either side, the protesters sat peacefully on the ground throughout, singing, chanting, at turns scared-looking and then defiant.
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The moment when one pair or group of troopers sets out to pull one sitting protester from the arms of their comrades was the moment most likely for police boots finding their way into anyone’s mouth or jammed down on a hand, as has been reported. Flying elbows, frenzied struggling, shoving, pushing, kicking were the result of each push forward by the troopers engaged with the peaceful protestors sitting on the ground.
In general terms, the statements I have heard from protesters and the characterizations I have read that the troopers “were armed to the teeth” simply weren’t true. It’s possible that one of the police dogs could have had managed to take a nip at a protestor, but from 10:30 to 12:30, as far as I could see, the troopers had their dogs well-heeled. The majority of the time, bored at the slow development of things, the dogs lay on the grass, tongues lolling.
Why bring the dogs at all?
Possessing such options as tasers, rubber bullets, tear gas and wooden sticks, the decision was made to bring along two German shepherds in case they could serve some purpose against barelegged college girls speaks volumes.
Hudson Valley One talks with State Troop F public information officer, Steven Nevel
Rokosz Most: Why didn’t the state troopers display their names or wear badges?
Trooper Nevel: For that advance team that’s going in, there’s gear that goes over everything. It wasn’t a conscious thing of not letting people know the names. The names are just not on those garments. It’s not something that we’re like, hey, take them off. The names just are never on there. We don’t remove a name tag off of a uniform.
RM: By putting on the outer outfit, you’ve concealed the name. Then that was a conscious decision.
TN: No. It’s not intentional. It’s not a conscious decision. I don’t understand what you’re, what you’re trying to get at. If somebody were to say, What’s your name, we’ll give someone our name. If anyone ever asks, I want your name and badge number, we give that information freely.
RM: So the expectation is that while these troopers are wearing their uniforms, you can’t see their names, they’ve got the batons, and they’re in the middle of an operation, people are supposed to ask them for their name and badge number?
TN: I don’t know what people expect or what they are doing in those situations. I’m just telling you what our uniform is …. There are no name tags, but every one of those troopers is wearing a body camera. And those body cameras are on the entire time.
RM: Are the videos reviewed, or do people have to request that?
TN: A hundred percent. If anyone wants it, it has to be FOILed [Freedom of Information Law request] but the way that camera system is, the body cameras, there’s no deletion, and the sergeants and supervisors, mission officers go through, and they’re still going through the videos. That video is running from the time a situation starts. That is not turned off until we’re done.
RM: I heard an allegation that a glass bottle was thrown and hit a state trooper, is that correct?
TN: It was a metal container that hit an investigator in the head. We put a press release out on that on the NYSP newsroom. The individual was arrested…
RM: I’ve heard allegations that one of the protesters is claiming that they were bitten by a German shepherd, do you know anything about that?
TN: Not that I know of. If we have someone that’s bit by one of our canines, there’s a report that gets done immediately. I don’t have a report of any of our canines, biting anyone. The canine handler has to do what’s called an incident report. The supervisor of the detail is notified immediately, there’s all types of paperwork, that person would be interviewed, immediate medical attention would take place, even, if that dog did do it, the handler is there, because that dog is on a leash. And not, you know, just running into the crowd.
RM: Most of the time I was there, the dogs looked kind of bored, They were lying on the ground, they seemed happy, barking playfully. But I guess I should ask why bring the dogs at all?
TN: We always do, for a situation like that. There’s just a standard operating procedure. There’s shields, there’s helmets, because you don’t know what this situation is going to turn into, so it’s best to have all those assets than to not have them and then need them.
RM: How many state troopers were there?
TN: Approximately 104. That includes troopers and investigators. The total team that was there.
RM: you could’ve brought AR-15s and you didn’t bring those, so why would you bring an animal that could bite somebody?
TN: You would have to probably get through Albany, because that’s all with tactics and training and the way we train, but I mean by going that route, it’s like, well, why do you guys have guns? Why’d you guys bring bulletproof vests? Why did you guys even show up? There’s so many what-ifs that you can go into there were people who’ve asked me why were there so many troopers? And I said, honestly, we didn’t have enough. So, you know, you go in preparing for the worst, and you absolutely hope for the best. We had one person injured, and from what I understand, I think only one protester was injured, and that was from someone in the crowd throwing stuff.
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