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Attorneys, witnesses say RPD used excessive force in protest arrests. Police defend their actions.

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Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisAttorneys, witnesses say RPD used excessive force in protest arrests. Police defend their actions.Share thisRichmond Deputy Police Chief Sydney Collier (left) Taylor Maloney, president-elect of the VCU Student Government AssociationTaylor Maloney, president-elect of the VCU Student Government Association, said Wednesday some protesters had parked across from the jail without blocking traffic.Richmond Deputy Police Chief Sydney Collier said Wednesday that the officer “did what he had to do.”Video footage of Richmond police arresting 11 people Tuesday evening amid a protest outside the Richmond City Justice Center has legal and law enforcement experts questioning whether the alleged crimes — impeding the flow of traffic, obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct — necessitated the level of force used by officers.One protester was shoved from his bike to the pavement by a responding Richmond police officer, stunning witnesses who looked on. Bandages covering injuries on his face, above his lip and under his right eye socket, are visible in the mugshot police released.The Richmond man’s attorney called the officer’s use of force “egregious and excessive.”Those who saw the encounter firsthand said they were still shaken Wednesday afternoon by what they said was an overreaction to an otherwise peaceful protest.In a news conference Wednesday, Deputy Chief Sydney Collier said the officer “did what he had to do.”A video of the encounter that was posted online by Channel 8 WRIC-TV shows the bicyclist, later identified as 19-year-old Benjamin Skromne, standing behind his bike blocking a tow truck in the southbound lanes of Oliver Hill Way.BREAKING—these are the moments pandemonium breaks out in Richmond, outside the city jail where a protest was staged. After an advance by police, protestors took to the street. A bicyclist was almost hit by an unmarked police cruiser, then tackled to the ground.— Ben Dennis 8News (@broadcastben_)It’s unclear how long he had been standing in the way of traffic, but police said Wednesday that he had been repeatedly asked to move and told he was violating the law.As an officer approached the cyclist from the side of the tow truck, the cyclist mounts his bike and rides, northbound, around the truck away from the officer, the video showed. The pursuing officer turns his back on the cyclist and walks out of view. The camera follows the bike, which swerves into the median to avoid an oncoming, unmarked police vehicle.The driver, an RPD officer who was wearing a tactical vest but did not appear to be in uniform, exits the vehicle at a sprint, pursuing the bike across the median and two southbound lanes and shoving the cyclist to the pavement. Seven other officers race over as screams from protesters in the background can be heard.The camera pans the nearby crowd as several other protesters appear to be getting shoved to the ground and arrested.“Other protesters then came over in an attempt to de-arrest him or prevent him from being arrested by the officers,” Collier said at the news conference Wednesday.Collier said the officer, whom he described as tackling the cyclist, did not have his body-worn camera on at the time, and Collier added that he did not know if any other officers captured the encounter on their cameras.Richmond police were called by the Richmond Sheriff’s Office to assist with the protest, which Collier said was encroaching on the jail’s property. Upon arriving, Collier said the officers noticed several parking violations and called in several tow trucks, starting the standoff.Police said that shortly before 7 p.m., a bicyclist blocked a tow truck as it tried to remove a vehicle parked illegally. When an RPD officer arrived, the cyclist tried to flee and was stopped by the officer, the police said.“Force is met with force,” Collier said. “He’s eluding. He’s trying to avoid capture. As long as he’s trying to elude, the officer used the only option he had to stop him while he was on the bicycle.”Attorney Sara Gaborik, who is representing Skromne, called the officer’s actions “egregious and excessive.”“That force was not necessary to effectuate an arrest,” Gaborik said Wednesday.Gaborik said her client was taken to a hospital after the encounter with the officer, but she declined to discuss the extent of his injuries.Skromne faces charges of obstruction of justice and impeding the flow of traffic, both misdemeanors.Several of those who attended Tuesday’s protest expressed concern for what they described as over-the-top action by the police and especially the officer’s use of force against Skromne.“I’m shaken from it,” said Susanna Keating, one of the 11 people arrested, in an interview Wednesday outside her Richmond home. “I’m still processing it, to be honest with you. I’m still hearing screams. It was just a blur of policemen and tow trucks.”About 50 people had turned out Tuesday in the early evening to protest conditions at the Richmond jail, emphasizing what they see as a lack of protection for inmates from the coronavirus, according to several people who were there.Sheriff Antionette Irving has not responded to questions about the outbreak at the jail this week, but said Wednesday night that she will do so on Thursday.In a video posted to the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page on Friday, Irving said 75 inmates were quarantined due to possible exposure or positive test results, and five staff members had tested positive.On Tuesday, the number of positive cases had risen to 91, according to an update from Danny Avula, director of the city’s health department.Taylor Maloney, president-elect of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Student Government Association, said that during Tuesday's demonstration she and other protesters had gathered on the sidewalk between the jail parking lot and Oliver Hill Way. Some of the protesters had parked on the other side of the street without blocking traffic, Maloney said.Keating, 27, who is charged with disorderly conduct, said police officers were “creeping in the back of the jail parking lot” while demonstrators were singing and chanting. The protesters were told to get off the grass and then the police started advancing and the demonstrators started to leave, Keating said.Police said in a statement about the arrests that by moving from the public sidewalk on the jail’s grounds, they were “causing a security concern.”Two tow trucks showed up at some point, Maloney said, and protesters on bicycles were trying to protect those on foot from traffic as they crossed the street.Keating said protesters were told they needed to leave, and that as she and a friend were walking to leave, a tow truck “drove up onto the median at us.”Keating “kicked the tow truck out of self-defense,” she said, and was thrown to the ground by two officers and detained.Maloney said she and other protesters were immediately concerned that Skromne might have been severely injured by the officer. They tried to rush over to check and see if he was all right.“I saw his head just hit the curb, with no helmet on,” Maloney said. In July, Maloney was arrested and charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor, for being in Monroe Park after 10 p.m. following a separate protest connected to civil unrest that began May 29.The police suggested that other protesters were arrested because they “attempted to interfere” with the arrest of Skromne.Keating said, however, that the protesters had only been concerned about Skromne’s well-being and were not trying to “de-arrest” him. She added that officers had surrounded Skromne and there was no way for anyone to interfere with his arrest.“What I saw was a whole lot of pandemonium,” Maloney said. “People were being charged at [by police] with no idea what was going on. No one had an idea why they were charging us.”Keating said the protest was peaceful and that demonstrators “had no intentions to cause a ruckus whatsoever.”“We just didn’t go to that protest expecting that to happen,” she said. “I don’t know how they can do this to their city in broad daylight. We are peacefully protesting police brutality and being met with it.”Claire Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of the Virginia, agreed, saying: “We continue to be concerned about the way RPD chooses to police our city, and we call on the chief to bring a halt to ongoing use of excessive force on our streets.“Every time RPD officers engage in conduct that exhibits a lack of control or use unnecessary force, they make the case for civilian review boards, heightened statewide professional conduct standards and accountability in court for unconstitutional acts.”Defense attorneys Betty Layne DesPortes and Steven D. Benjamin said there should be an investigation into the officer who knocked the cyclist to the ground.“He could have hit his head and died,” DesPortes said of Skromne. “That is deadly force. That is disproportionate use of force.”DesPortes pointed out that officers asked the cyclist to move, and he did. One officer who had initially approached him turned away once Skromne had cleared the tow truck. While impeding traffic is a violation, DesPortes said, “it’s an abusive petty offense. A tool used by police to bully and harass citizens.”Making that arrest, and in such a manner, escalated the situation to the extent that DesPortes said she questions the department’s motivations.“The police department looks like they are trying to arrest their way out of this,” she said. “What the Richmond police department is doing is undermining their position in the community.”Another attorney, Charlie Schmidt, called for the officer to be charged criminally.“Regardless of what RPD says to justify it, the main thing to remember is that officers assaulted people for standing in the grass and standing in the street. That’s it,” he said in an email. “RPD is constantly painting protesters as violent. RPD are the ones that are violent. These officers will not face any sort of discipline for their violence. And RPD wonders why the community will not support them in their efforts to solve crime.”Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin did not respond Wednesday to the question of whether she will investigate the officer’s conduct.Schmidt referenced comments made by Police Chief Gerald Smith on social media a little more than an hour before the arrests at the jail on Tuesday. Smith said the department has responded to 23 shootings and 10 homicides in the city since Aug. 15 with few tips from the community.“What can we do differently?” he asked. “The Police Dept. cannot fight this fight alone.”In response to the attorneys’ criticisms of excessive force, Collier asked: “What part of it would you call excessive?”“In hindsight, it’s always easy to Monday morning quarterback, but when you’re out there and you’re in the middle of it, it’s your responsibility to do the best that you can,” Collier said in defense of the officers.That’s exactly what the department should be doing, said William Pelfrey, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University with expertise in policing.“I think it is the responsibility of the police department to Monday morning quarterback,” he said. “Police departments have a responsibility to dissect every use-of-force incident.”By policy, the department is required to do that, Pelfrey said. And if a mistake was made, it needs to address it.Though he called the incident with the bicyclist “ugly,” he said the officer was “acting within his duties,” as were the others who arrested protesters who interfered.Pelfrey sits on Mayor Levar Stoney’s task force to “Re-imagine Public Safety,” which meets Friday, and its use-of-force subgroup, which already met this week. He expects this incident to be discussed.All of the charges against the 11 individuals that could be found in the court record are misdemeanors. In addition to Skromne and Keating, the following individuals were identified in court records as having been charged:(804) 649-6527 Twitter: @AliRockettRTDRichmond Deputy Police Chief Sydney Collier (left) Taylor Maloney, president-elect of the VCU Student Government AssociationTaylor Maloney, president-elect of the VCU Student Government Association, said Wednesday some protesters had parked across from the jail without blocking traffic.Richmond Deputy Police Chief Sydney Collier said Wednesday that the officer “did what he had to do.”{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisAttorneys, witnesses say RPD used excessive force in protest arrests. Police defend their actions.Share thisRichmond Deputy Police Chief Sydney Collier (left) Taylor Maloney, president-elect of the VCU Student Government AssociationTaylor Maloney, president-elect of...

Attorneys, witnesses say RPD used excessive force in protest arrests. Police defend their actions.

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