More than two-dozen officers responded to an outdoor gathering around 6pm in the neighborhood near Rhode Island Hospital. Police admit that over the course of three hours, officers pepper-sprayed people in the crowd and arrested five, including four minors.
“These children were screaming, screaming ‘I’m burning,’” Taffii Moore, a resident of the neighborhood who witnessed the incident, said at a press conference Thursday.
Residents and community members filled the small stretch of Sayles Street for the event, during which shaken residents cried and held posters demanding accountability.
Moore’s daughter, Zyrray Moore, 21, was the only adult arrested during the night. Moore claims officers hit her while attempting to arrest her.
“I got punched in the face by several officers,” Zyrray Moore said at the press conference. “I’m trying to explain to them, ‘I’m not resisting arrest. There’s no reason for you guys to have your feet and my neck on top of me.’”
City leaders criticized police officers’ demeanor, not their actions, but said the department would continue to investigate the complaints.
Providence police say they were responding to complaints of fighting when an officer arrived on the scene to find about 50 people in the area, some of whom appeared to be fighting.
“There were several attempts during the course of that time to de-escalate,” Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements said at a press conference Friday morning. Eventually, police called for all available patrol cars, leaving 25 to 30 officers on scene, according to police.
In body camera footage released by Providence Police and footage filmed by bystanders that evening, police can be seen swearing, and at one time, appearing to refer to people as “animals.”
In another video, one officer yells “who wants some more?” after police used pepper spray on the crowd.
“There’s some stuff that I’ve that I’ve seen, and that I heard in those videos, that fall way short of the professionalism in the standards that we set for ourselves,” said Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza. “There are comments that instead of de-escalating a situation, which is our policy, actually escalates the situation. And there are some comments that I saw that are just unacceptable.”
The city’s Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré said that police presence was warranted during the gathering, but added his criticism of some of the officers’ language.
“There’ll be responsibility and accountability for that,” said Paré. “That’s not what we’re about.”
Police denied allegations that they held people in a van without air conditioning for more than an hour on the hot, humid night, though Paré said people were held in the van for at least 30 minutes. Paré said there was “no evidence” that pepper spray was used directly on a child.
“It was used according to policy,” Clements said. “We have to, as best we can, try to create distance for the safety of everyone, the people on the scene, and the police officers. And that’s why [pepper spray] was used.”
Providence officials say they are in the process of redacting more body camera footage from the incident before releasing it to the public.
The investigation into the complaints is currently being handled by the Providence Police themselves. The Attorney General’s office, which deals with allegations of excessive use of force by police, had not started its own investigation, though Paré said he had spoken with R.I. Attorney General Peter Nerhona about the incident. No police officers have been suspended or placed on leave, Paré said.
“We heard and saw the tactics [officers] used, and yet there is still no clear mechanism or pathway forward to hold those officers accountable,” said Rhode Island state Sen. Tiara Mack (D-Providence), who has advocated for diverting police funding to social programs and repealing the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.
The Black Lives Matter Political Action Committee Rhode Island is planning a Saturday rally to protest the police response.
“We’re demanding for the Providence police to make a public apology and some firing to happen,” Taffii Moore said. “They are beating your children, our children, and not being held accountable. We’re asking for them to be retrained, apologize, fired if they’re repeat offenders.”
