Amnesty International Documents Widespread Police Violence Against Protesters for Black Lives

Police across the U.S. committed widespread and egregious human rights violations against people protesting the unlawful killings of Black people and calling for police reform, Amnesty International said today, as it launched an interactive map of incidents of police violence and a new campaign calling for systemic changes in policing.

Amnesty International has documented 125 separate examples of police violence against protesters in 40 states and the District of Columbia between 26 May and 5 June 2020, a period when hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world protested against racism and police violence and to demand that Black lives matter. The analysis shows that law enforcement consistently violated human rights out on the streets instead of fulfilling their obligations to respect and facilitate the right of people to peacefully protest.

This unlawful use of force included beatings, misuse of tear gas and pepper spray, and the inappropriate firing of less-lethal projectiles, such as sponge rounds and rubber bullets. They were committed by a range of police officers across federal agencies, state and local police departments, as well as military forces.

“The analysis is clear: when activists and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets in cities and towns across the country to peacefully demand an end to systemic racism and police violence, they were overwhelmingly met with a militarized response and more police violence,” said Brian Castner, Senior Crisis Adviser on Arms and Military Operations at Amnesty International.

“The time for applying band-aids and making excuses for a few ‘bad apples’ has passed. What’s needed now is systemic, root-and-branch reform of policing that brings an end to the scourge of police use of excessive force and extrajudicial executions of Black people. Communities should not live in fear of being harmed by the very officers that have sworn an oath to protect them. Officers responsible for excessive force and unlawful killings must always be held accountable.”

Open-source investigation into U.S. protests

To evaluate these incidents, Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab gathered almost 500 videos and photographs of protests from social media platforms. This digital content was then verified, geolocated, and analyzed by investigators with expertise in weapons, police tactics, and international and U.S. laws governing the use of force. In some cases, researchers were also able to interview victims and confirm police conduct with local police departments.   

Police violence in dozens of states

As the map shows, Amnesty International’s analysis reveals a dizzying array of violations by law enforcement across the country, including in 80% of states.

“Giving law enforcement weapons of war creates an endless cycle of violence that disproportionately affects Black people. We are a society that has chosen to let law enforcement kill Black people in near-total impunity and attack protesters who peacefully exercised their right to speak up against these human rights abuses,” said Ernest Coverson, End Gun Violence Campaign Manager for Amnesty International USA. 

“This research shows that the police will stop at nothing to squash protesters. No one had to lose their eyesight, get sick, or forever fear the police because they wanted to say that Black lives matter. It’s time to end these human rights violations once and for all.”

On May 30, a joint patrol of Minneapolis police and Minnesota National Guard personnel unlawfully shot U.S.-manufactured 37/40mm impact projectiles at people peacefully standing on the front porches of their homes. After encountering the people recording with their smartphones, the forces ordered them to “get inside” and then yelled “light them up” before firing.

On June 1, security personnel from a variety of federal agencies, including National Park Police and the Bureau of Prisons, as well as D.C. National Guard personnel, committed a range of human rights violations against protesters in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. They misused a variety of crowd control agents, and tossed U.S.-manufactured Stinger Ball grenades, which contain pepper spray and explode in a concussive “flash-bang” effect, throwing rubber pellets indiscriminately in all directions. The attack, which preceded a photo op by President Trump in front of a nearby church, was widely reported on by the media, including a lengthy video report by The Washington Post for which Amnesty International contributed the weapons and tactical analysis.

Also on June 1, in Philadelphia, state and city police used large amounts of tear gas and pepper spray to remove dozens of peaceful protesters from the Vine Street Expressway. One affected protester, Lizzie Horne, a Rabbinical student, told Amnesty International: 

“Out of the blue, they started breezing pepper spray into the crowd. There was one officer on the median who was spraying as well. Then they started with tear gas. Someone who was right in the front – who had a tear gas canister hit his head – started running back. And we were trying to help him, flushing his eyes and then he just fainted and started having a seizure. He came to pretty quickly. As we were finally lifting him up and started getting him out of the way, they started launching more tear gas; that’s when people started to get really scared. They started gassing in a kettle formation – we were against a big fence that people had to jump over, up a steep hill. The fence was maybe six feet tall. People started putting their hands up – but the cops wouldn’t let up. It was can after can after can. We were encapsulated in gas. We were drooling and coughing uncontrollably. 

“Then the cops came from the other side of the fence and started gassing from that direction. After that, the police started coming up the hill and… they were hitting and tackling people. They were dragging people down the hill and forcing them down on their knees, lining them up kneeling on the median on the highway with their hands in zip ties, and pulling down their masks and spraying and gassing them again.” 

The violations were not limited to the largest cities. Local police inappropriately used tear gas against peaceful protesters in Louisville, Kentucky; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. And in Fort Wayne, Indiana on May 30, a local journalist lost his eye when police shot him in the face with a tear gas grenade.

Legal analysis on use of force

Excessive use of force against peaceful protesters violates both the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law. Law enforcement agencies at all levels have a responsibility to respect, protect, and facilitate peaceful assemblies. While the majority of the protesters have been peaceful, police have routinely used disproportionate and indiscriminate force against entire demonstrations.

Police can only resort to use of force at public assemblies when it is absolutely necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective, in response to serious violence threatening the lives or rights of others. Even then, authorities must strictly distinguish between peaceful demonstrators or bystanders, and any individual who is actively engaged in violence. The violent acts of an individual never justify the disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters generally, and force is only justified until the immediate threat of violence toward others is contained.

Any restrictions of public assemblies – including use of force against demonstrators – must not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, political ideology, or other social groups. 

Police reform urgently needed

In an Executive Order on June 16, President Trump called for limited police reforms, including a partial ban on chokeholds of the kind that killed George Floyd in Minneapolis last month, as well as a national database on allegations of excessive force by police. Some state and city law enforcement have also rolled out partial reforms locally since the protests began, such as suspending the use of some crowd control weapons like tear gas. In Minneapolis, a majority of the City Council pledged to disband the police department.

Amnesty International USA and the seven million-strong Amnesty International movement worldwide are demanding real and lasting reforms to policing across the board, including to:

• Stop extrajudicial executions of Black people by police and bring accountability for their deaths through independent, impartial investigations that lead to reparations for the victims and survivors.
• Pass federal legislation, like the PEACE Act, to restrict police use of force to only what is strictly necessary and proportionate in order to limit the use of deadly force.
• Pass federal legislation to demilitarize the police by eliminating the 1033 program.
• Ban the use of chokeholds and other maneuvers that cut off blood and oxygen to the brain, including neck holds, chokeholds, and similar excessive force. Such use force should be considered a federal civil rights violation.
• Prohibit the use of no knock warrants, particularly for drug searches.
• Change the intent standard requirement from “willfulness” to “recklessness,” permitting prosecutors to successfully hold law enforcement accountable for depriving people of their civil rights and civil liberties.
• End the qualified immunity doctrine, which prevents police from being legally held accountable when they break the law.
• Ensure the right to peaceful protest against police violence, without the threat of protesters, journalists or bystanders being targeted by further police violence.

“Real, systemic and lasting police reform is needed at all levels to ensure that people across the country feel safe to walk the streets and express their opinions freely and peacefully without facing a real threat of harm from the very officers that are supposed to protect them. This is a Constitutional right that is mirrored in international human rights law; to deny this right with physical violence, tear gas and pepper spray is a hallmark of repression,” said Brian Griffey, USA Researcher/Adviser at Amnesty International.