Cambridge Police Cleared Of Brutality After Punching Student

CAMBRIDGE, MA — The former chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts tasked with reviewing the arrest of a black Harvard undergraduate in 2018 said he does not think police did anything wrong. The arrest of a then-18-year-old student who was standing naked in the middle of Mass Avenue sparked allegations of police brutality after a passerby captured officers on video punching the student.

"The officers of the Cambridge Police Department acted appropriately and I found no evidence that they used excessive force,” said retired chief justice Roderick L. Ireland, who was the first black judge appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

The altercation between the student and police was filmed by passersby and posted to YouTube in April. It shows that before the student's arrest, the undergrad appeared to be standing naked in the middle of the median along Mass. Ave for some time as police stood in a circle around him. At one point the student steps forward and an officer tackles the student. The student starts screaming a high pitch scream. Bystanders yell at the police who are seen punching the man, that they don't need to do that to him.

• Scroll down to watch the video of the arrest.

Shortly afterward, Director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute Ron Sullivan along with Deputy Director Dehlia Umunna said they would represent the student. Sullivan represented former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez in his double murder trial and has also represented the family of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old black man who was shot in Ferguson, MO in 2014, which prompted the Black Lives Matter movement.

Friday, Cambridge City Manager Louis DePasquale and Cambridge Police Commissioner Branville Bard, Jr. announced that the City of Cambridge has published the results of a review conducted by Ireland on the April 13, 2018 arrest of the Harvard student.

The 18-page report includes a summary of Ireland’s assessment, his method of evaluation, an overview of the materials reviewed, various articles and studies, legal standards, facts as reported by the responding officers, the review and recommendations. Ireland’s review concluded police did what they were supposed to do.

"It is clear in the video that the officers are intent on their task of keeping the student on the ground, but there is nothing that indicates any of them are displaying anger toward the student. In fact, they all help ambulance personnel get the student onto the stretcher so that he could be transported to the hospital," the report reads....
"It is clear that many of the bystanders were very upset when the officers tackled the student and were seen punching him. One bystander can be heard on the video saying in a loud voice that the student could not get his arms out from under him because the officers were on top of him. Another can be heard saying loudly, 'Let him breathe.' And it is clear from the student's creaming and saying, 'I need Jesus,' that he was extremely frightened while the officers were trying to handcuff him;indeed it is upsetting to watch.
However, the officers who punched the student stated that this was taught to them as a technique to distract individuals who resist being handcuffed. This assertion is supported by the documents provided by the police experts that are attached..."

The report indicated a friend of the student's called police and told them he'd taken drugs and needed help making sure he was safe. Ireland noted that rather than calling for backup, or more officers' help, they called for an ambulance, indicating they were concerned about the student's well being.

Ireland's review aligned with the Cambridge Police Department’s Professional Standards Unit’s incident review, which concluded that the actions taken by the officers “were reasonable and justified to de-escalate an unsafe situation that evening for all involved.”

This was based on findings that indicated that the force used by the Cambridge Police Officers complied with department policy on use of force and related policies, was within state and federal legal standards; and adhered to state guidelines and training set forth in the Municipal Police Training Committee Use of Force Model and Totality Triangle.

“I greatly appreciate the community’s patience on the results of this review,” said Bard in a statement. “As we previously stated, our intention from the outset of this incident was to ensure a thorough, complete, fair and transparent internal review process. Bringing on someone with the track record of Chief Justice Ireland to independently review this incident was critically important."

Ireland did make several recommendations in the report, including that the department keep up to date on to training to effectively handle similar incidents, particularly those involving individuals who may be in a mental health crisis.

He also recommended continued public outreach and education to help people understand incidents like these.

"Such outreach is important because it's difficult for the average layperson to look at this particular incident in isolation from the numerous cases that have occurred across the country in which black men have been subjected to overreactions or excessive force from police officers, including the Gates Case that occurred right in Cambridge," he wrote. "Rightly or wrongly any event involving police will be looked at with some skepticism and questioning."

Officials say they are working on ensuring everyone in the department is trained to handle situations that involve mental health crisis. As part of this year’s annual in-service training program, which took place between January and April 2019, all Cambridge Police Officers participated in a new training program – Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics –becoming the second agency in Massachusetts and third in New England to initially receive the training.

During this year’s in-service training, the department’s sworn officers also received “Police Interaction with Persons with Mental Illnesses” instruction from Dr. James Barrett, a nationally recognized expert in child and adolescent mental health and juvenile justice, who was hired this past year as the department’s new director of Clinical Support Services.

Other ongoing training include Youth Mental Health First Aid training, Crisis Intervention Team Training, and Trauma-Informed Training. A new implicit bias training will be offered for officers at the Cambridge Police Department and surrounding agencies on Monday, June 3 at Harvard University, as Professor Mahzarin Banaji, who is well-known for her work popularizing the concept of implicit bias in regard to race, gender, sexual orientation and other factors, will lead the training. Last year Banaji facilitated a similar discussion for Cambridge residents and interested City of Cambridge employees at Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

“As a follow-up to the issuance of this report, I look forward to building upon and advancing the conversations we have established with Harvard’s Black Students Organizing for Change,” said Bard in a statement. “We are also committed to making Command Staff and other members of the department available to meet with interested residents in the City of Cambridge to discuss the report, its results and general inquiries about the Department, as we did in the weeks initially following the April 2018 incident.”

Both Mayor Marc McGovern and Harvard's president previously called the incident "disturbing."

Previously on Patch:

• Harvard Professors To Represent Black Harvard Student Arrested
• Mayor on the Video of the Cop Punching a Black Harvard Student

Watch the video:

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).