- 20-year-old protester Dounya Zayer, who was shoved to the ground by a male police officer during a May 29 protest, virtually testified during New York Attorney General Letitia James's public hearing as part of her investigation into possible NYPD misconduct.
- During the virtual hearing, James offered sympathy on the situation, to which Zayer responded: "Where are the good cops I keep hearing of?"
- The officer involved in the incident, Vincent D'Andraia, has been charged with third-degree assault, fourth-degree criminal mischief, second-degree harassment and third-degree menacing. He has also been suspended without pay.
Dounya Zayer, a 20-year-old protester who received a concussion after being shoved to the ground by a male police officer, testified virtually during a public hearing on Wednesday and asked New York Attorney General Letitia James "Where are the good cops I keep hearing of?"
Zayer attended a May 29
The now-viral incident was captured on video.
Zayer also captured the moments leading up to the incident on her cell phone, which she says the officer threw.
—Dounya Zayer (@zayer_dounya) May 30, 2020
Zayer posted multiple videos from the hospital after the incident, where she explained what led up to the altercation and said that she did not physically provoke the officer. She also said that she suffered a seizure and a concussion from the fall.
"I wasn't aggressive to the police officer," she said in a video posted from a hospital bed following the incident. "And even if I was, he should have had the self-restraint to not hurt the people he is supposed to be protecting."
The officer involved in the incident, Vincent D'Andraia, has been charged with third-degree assault, fourth-degree criminal mischief, second-degree harassment and third-degree menacing. He has also been suspended without pay.
During the virtual public hearing on Tuesday, which is part of James' investigation into possible NYPD misconduct, Zayer demanded action against officers who use excessive force during
—Dounya Zayer (@zayer_dounya) June 18, 2020
"Vincent D'Andraia being suspended so that the publicity can go away and then they can bring him back to do the same thing over and over again?" she said. "Where the hell is the humanity in watching these officers assault a human for no reason?"
"I'm sorry for your incident," James responded to Zayer. "And I just want you to know that the officers involved unfortunately really don't reflect the vast majority of the officers in the NYPD."
"What about the dozens of officers who witnessed the assault and did nothing?" she interrupted, saying that police violence has become "normalized."
"I understand there are good cops, but where was the 'good cop' to help me?" she continued. "Where was the 'good cop' for
"Where are the good cops I keep hearing of?" she said. "Thank you for your sympathy, but I don't want to hear that there are good cops when not a single good cop helped me."
James is set to hold a second day of hearings on Thursday because of the "outpouring of submissions" regarding interactions between police and protesters.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said that the NYPD was "not perfect."
"Did I see isolated incidents and take swift action because the actions were wrong? Absolutely," Shea said. "But when you look back at that period, I hope that history will show that [police officers] acted with incredible professionalism, incredible restraint."