As George Floyd-inspired protest actions continue to permeate New York City – the epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak – The Legal Aid Society and other public defenders have called-out both the tactics that the NYPD has utilized in handling protester arrests, as well as a lax attitude to public health and safety that borders on negligence, as reported by VICE.

The NYPD has conducted mass arrests throughout the protests of the past weeks, constantly forcing New Yorkers into confined spaces where meaningful social distancing and other safety precautions are all but impossible. Officers have been observed wearing neither masks nor gloves en mass, even among the throngs who have participated in the protests.

“Everyone in the crowd had a mask on except for the cops, and they did not take it,” said Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney with the Cop Accountability Project at The Legal Aid Society, who was delivering protective supplies to protesters. “I didn’t see them take out any of their own at all.”