A violent arrest shakes Schenectady
Video of Yugeshwar Guindarpersaud being assaulted while arrested goes viral, leads to protests.
July, 9 2020
By Kassie Parisi
“We are not trying to start a race war,” Legacy Casanõva called out to a gathered crowd of about 100 people in front of the Schenectady Police Station on Monday night. “We’re trying to end one.”
His rallying cry was met with cheers and nods of approval from the sea of faces, many hoisting high above their heads, as they have for the past few weeks, signs that read “Black Lives Matter.”
The gathering on Lafayette Street, though fairly large, was an impromptu one, spurred by an incident earlier that day during which a city police officer knelt on the neck of a Guyanese man during a confrontation.
Yugeshwar Guindarpersaud, 31, the Brandywine Avenue resident who was assaulted, spoke to gathered protestors about what transpired when, according to him, police officers trespassed onto his property.
According Guindarpersaud, on Monday morning, a police officer confronted him during a situation in which the officer claimed Guindarpersaud was a suspect in a tire-slashing incident.
Guindarpersaud said he asked the officer to present visual proof to support the accusation prior to coming on to his property, but the officer ignored him, came on to his property anyway, and demanded that he turn around.
Guindarpersaud then demanded to know why he was being put under arrest, at which point the police officer “ran, jumped on me, threw me onto the concrete and put his knee on my neck.”
“I was yelling, I can’t breathe, take your foot off me,” Guindarpersaud recounted. Eventually, he said, he was dragged into a police car. At some point, he said, he lost consciousness and woke up in Ellis Hospital.
“If he had had me for like, five more minutes on the ground, I’d be gone,” he said.
The Schenectady Police Department have released multiple statements addressing the incident.
On Monday, a press release from SPD noted at that approximately 9:38 a.m.,an officer was dispatched to the Brandywine Avenue area after receiving a report of slashed tires on a vehicle. Upon arriving on scene, according to the release, the officer was told by a neighbor that Guindarpersaud was allegedly guilty of slashing the tires.
The release goes on to say Guindarpersaud fled into his backyard when confronted by the officer. It then says that a “brief foot chase and struggle ensued,” and the altercation ended with Guindarpersaud being put into handcuffs.
The incident is being investigated by SPD’s Office of Professional Standards, according to the release.
On Tuesday, Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford released his own statement during which he acknowledged that the confrontation took place but defended the actions of the officer.
“Mr. Yugeshwar Guindarpersaud did resist arrest, both actively and passively,” the two page statement read.
Clifford went on to say that Guindarpersaud was only on the ground long enough for police officers to put him in handcuffs, and said, while a knee was placed on Guindarpersaud’s head to contain his struggling, his breathing was never restricted.
Clifford also disputed the claim that Guindarpersaud was ever unconscious. On Wednesday, SPD identified the officer involved in the incident as Brian Pommer, who has been with the department for seven years and has been placed on desk duty.
Extended body camera footage released late on Wednesday seemed to show that Guindarpersaud ran into his backyard away from Pommer after being confronted. Pommer then took off running after him, eventually tackling him to the ground.
Footage from inside the police car was not included in the release.
Activists at the rally found out about the situation via a widely circulated social media video of the incident taken by Jaindra Guindarpersaud, the father of Yugeshwar.
They spent most of the day trying to figure out what was going on: where was Guindarpersaud? Was he injured? If so, how badly?
“I was immediately outraged,” Casanõva said. “This whole situation is just so fucking unfortunate and sad.”
Jamaica Miles, who organizes with local advocacy group All Of Us, said she was called immediately about the confrontation by concerned city residents. All Of Us, in turn, began to make calls in an attempt to find out more information, including calling media outlets to gain visibility for the situation.
“Had we not made those calls, we would have had no idea what would have happened to this young man while he was in custody,” she said.
Miles expressed frustration over what she perceives as a lack of effective action addressing racist policing in the city from both Mayor Gary McCarthy and the police department.
She cited a list of 13 demands issued in June to the city by All Of Us, which includes the prosecution of all law enforcement and corrections officers for all civil rights violations.
“The 13 demands that were written were just the beginning. But it was a beginning. The answer that we received was a knee on this man’s neck,” she said.
Miles added that, as the demands seem to be going ignored, and protestors and victims of police brutality continue to be forced together, it’s time to implement a new tactic beyond protest: civil disobedience.
That will start with a sit-in at Schenectady’s City Hall on Monday. There is, she said, no more time to waste, and called on McCarthy to act immediately on reforms.
“If overnight, [Guindarpersaud] can be abused, overnight, you can make a fucking change,” she said. “If this is the reason we are going to be together, then fuck it, let’s be together.”
Activist Lukee Forbes questioned on Monday evening the city’s police practices in general.
(Lukee Forbes speaking at the Schenectady Police Station)
Monday’s incident, he said, was by no means an isolated one. The continued behavior, he added, stems directly from the lack of accountability or that police officers have to face while on the job.
“Why is it that you need immunity to be a cop?” he yelled into a megaphone to furious calls back from the gathered protestors. “How are you called to speak to someone when you only know how to kill people?”
Forbes further cautioned that police officers and other authority figures are banking on protestors remaining ignorant of the power that they hold as a collective.
That power is there, he said, ready to be grabbed, and when that happens, change will come.
“That is the power of the people. Not only do we have the power to shut the streets down, we have the power to change laws,” he shouted. “Cause these are y’all’s streets. These are not their streets.”