New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea testified on Monday that officers who drove their cars into protesters were complying with department standards, and he defended the arrests of legal observers monitoring police conduct at demonstrations. Shea’s testimony was part of a series of online public hearings held by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is investigating the police response to widespread protests following last month’s killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Last week, scores of protesters testified that New York Police Department officers kicked or shoved them, hit them with night sticks, doused them with pepper spray or cuffed wrists so tightly that hands turned blue.
