The NYPD Is Back to Its Violent Old Ways

Isabelle Leyva has been monitoring protests for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) since summer 2020, when police in New York City routinely trapped and assaulted medics, legal observers, and peaceful protesters. On May 29, 2020, at a protest outside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Leyva watched police in riot gear beat demonstrators with batons and arrest dozens. For the rest of the summer, she spent almost every day at protests, as a monitor and participant, where she was pepper-sprayed, beaten, and trapped by police. But Leyva had still never seen...