Editor’s note: On occasion, The Shoestring commissions deeply reported articles from those directly impacted by the subject they’re writing about. It’s our attempt to grapple with the “view from nowhere” myth that dominates mainstream media coverage. In this piece, divina cordeiro — who was among the protesters police arrested at last year’s pro-Palestine encampment at UMass Amherst — obtained and investigated body-camera footage from the night of the crackdown.
AMHERST — A police sergeant threatening to break the ankle of a restrained protester. Another officer bragging about punching an arrestee. Police hands on protesters’ necks.
Those are some of the revelations The Shoestring has discovered combing through hours of newly obtained body-camera footage from the state’s crackdown on a pro-Palestine encampment last spring at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The footage, reported now for the first time, shows violent and derogatory police behavior toward protesters.
“If someone wants to go back and watch this entire body-cam thing, then hey, whatever,” one state police officer, Lt. Brian Clapprood, can be overheard saying on one of the videos.
On May 7, activists established a second encampment on the UMass Amherst campus after having disbanded their first encampment a week prior at the request of the school’s administration. According to the student groups that organized the encampments, they were a show of solidarity with other campus protests nationwide drawing attention to Israel’s U.S.-backed invasion and bombardment of Gaza — actions that a United Nations official and other human rights advocates say are acts of genocide.
Organizers also made demands to the university administration, including that the school divest from weapons manufacturers. A rally and protest took place that day to support the second encampment, attended by UMass students and faculty, students from other nearby colleges, and other community members. That night, the administration made the decision to call over 200 police officers to campus for what they described as safety concerns. The Shoestring found that the police response ultimately cost taxpayers over $100,000.
Among the various police departments that descended on Amherst that day was the Massachusetts State Police’s Special Emergency Response Team, or SERT. SERT police officers facilitating arrests at UMass Amherst had also been present at other encampments statewide, such as those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Northeastern University.
Police arrested over 130 UMass students, faculty, and community members on May 7 and 8. According to The New York Times, this put UMass’ encampment crackdown among the top 10 of schools with the most arrests or detainments in the country. Community members who were arrested are currently banned from campus for the next two years, faculty arrestees received reprimands, and arrested students faced student conduct sanctions despite their criminal charges being dropped or reduced.
UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes commissioned an external investigation of the school’s response to the encampment. On Jan. 16, Reyes released the investigation, which the law firm Prince Lobel Tye conducted. The firm ultimately found that the university had acted “prudently” based on “a reasonable assessment (in real time and under pressure) that things could spin out of control quickly.” But the firm also found that administrators could have sought out a more “flexible and deliberative approach” to consider other avenues of dismantling the encampment.
That more flexible approach, the report said, would “probably have led to consideration of other paths, where the mission to protect the welfare of students could still have been upheld, and with fewer (perhaps, far fewer) students or faculty members having to endure the harrowing experience of facing a large and intimidating police operation to disperse the crowd and dismantle the May 7 Encampment.”
The report found that although the safety risk from the encampment was “not negligible,” there were also health and well-being risks posed by a “complex” police operation that included arresting, transporting, and detaining a significant and increasing crowd of protesters.
Now, The Shoestring has obtained and analyzed hours of body-cam footage from Massachusetts State Police and its SERT as part of a months-long investigation.
When asked about The Shoestring’s findings, a spokesperson for the state police said that the agency is “reviewing body worn camera from this event last spring to ensure that our members’ actions align with the Department’s policies and expectations of professional conduct.” The agency also did not make available the officers named in this article for interviews.
***
Several videos of a protester’s arrest circulated in the days after the crackdown and became an example of excessive violence for those who were critical of the police response. A letter signed by over 225 faculty and staff calling for Reyes’ resignation referred to the video as “shocking evidence” of “brutality.”
The footage shows a protester playing a makeshift drum and interacting with police prior to their arrest. Moments before the arrest, state police Sgt. Luis Rodriguez can be seen laughing at the protester, calling them “little guy” and saying they’re “done.” Lt. Kevin O’Hara then pushes the protester to the ground while multiple other officers restrain them.
While a handful of officers restrained and arrested the protester, Rodriguez took their ankle and twisted it.
“I will break your ankle,” Rodriguez said. “Let loose.”
The Shoestring was able to identify the protester and spoke to them about their arrest.
David Feliciano, 27, is a resident of western Massachusetts and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
“I was brutalized,” Feliciano said. “My purpose for being there was to highlight the contradiction of how the police operate as the militarized, armed branch of … investors and shareholders that fund UMass as an institution and a business.”
Feliciano said that they tripped and that the police “took advantage of [them] being vulnerable” and began to arrest them. By the time they got up, police had surrounded them. Feliciano described getting into the fetal position, trying to protect their “private parts,” and bracing themselves to be hit. The police hit them in their genital area, they said.
“I just need to get through this in one piece,” they recalled thinking.
Felciano said that police made no attempt to communicate with them to let them know they were being arrested.
They also said the police seemed to downplay their injuries. Feliciano said they asked for ice and did not receive it because their ankle wasn’t visibly inflamed. But the days following the arrest, they said their ankle did swell up. They said they also had scratches, minor cuts, and bruises, that they were limping, and that they had difficulty walking in the days following.
Like other community members arrested that night, UMass banned Feliciano from campus for two years.
“I want, as an individual and as a member of the political organization … to be able to build on campus with students and faculty towards a free world,” Feliciano said. “Palestine is the tip of the spear, but Palestine will free us all. It’s unfair, in simple terms, that the community could lose access to its own people.”
In response to The Shoestring’s request for comment on findings of the police body-cam footage, Emily Gest, UMass Amherst’s associate vice chancellor for news and media relations, said in a statement that the university would “strongly encourage” anybody with allegations of misconduct involving the state police to file a report with the agency or with the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
“We expect … such complaints to be rigorously investigated and adjudicated,” Gest said. “The university is not aware of any findings of misconduct.”
According to the Prince Lobel report, despite the chancellor and other senior leadership understanding the possibility of police intervention on May 7, “he and members of senior leadership were surprised by the number of police present, [the state police’s] leading role in the operation, and the overall intensity of the police operation.”
The report also said that some senior leaders lamented not asking more questions about the police plan and that they’re concerned about the “lasting damage” the mass arrests had on students’ relationship with campus authorities.
“For these reasons, we find that there was a lack of communication and coordination within the Administration and between the Administration and the UMPD about the planned police response,” the report said
That night, Rodriguez, the state police sergeant, said to his subordinates that pepper balls were approved for use. Though none were deployed based on the body-cam footage, there is no record of this approval in the university’s encampment timeline, an FAQ the school released about May 7, or statements Reyes made. No announcements were made to the protesters either.
In another video The Shoestring analyzed, Rodriguez said that he “punched” a protester.
“You know what I did?” Rodriguez asked. “I punched him right in the gut.”
“No I didn’t, I assisted him to the ground,” another officer said.
“No, I didn’t. I punched him,” Rodriguez responded. “I was trying to give them charley horses, punch them and give them charley horses, ‘cause they weren’t releasing — drummer boy.”
***
According to Massachusetts law, a police officer “shall not be trained to use a lateral vascular neck restraint, carotid restraint or other action that involves the placement of any part of law enforcement officer’s body on or around a person’s neck in a manner that limits the person’s breathing or blood flow.” Massachusetts banned those maneuvers in 2020 following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On May 7, The Shoestring identified videos of at least two SERT officers placing their hands on the necks of protesters. One protester, who was already restrained by four police officers, can be heard in the footage saying:
“My neck, my neck. Stop, you’re gonna break my leg.”
Officers also made comments about the protesters’ bodies, the videos show. State Trooper Eugene Lawerence said in one video that a protester was “hiding a Swiss Army knife in her boobs, giant boobs.” The protester is heard earlier in the video announcing that she had a knife and offering to take it out.
In another instance, officers also referred to protesters as “biggin.’”
The state police also appear to have planned the arrest of a student organizer who had been recording and interacting with them. A group of SERT police form a line to separate the protesters and officers push the organizer to the ground, restrain, and arrest him while he is filming the police.
This protester spoke to The Shoestring on the condition of anonymity due to concerns about their safety and their future. Body-cam footage shows that they were the only person arrested in that area at the time. They said the police didn’t treat them with any respect and used “unreasonable” force. The protester said that the police targeted them because they were leading chants and assumed they were leadership, but not because the police knew who they were.
The force police used during the arrest tore the protester’s labrum, they said, leading to “a lot” of physical therapy and potential surgery in the future.
“If anything, it strengthened my resolve to continue organizing,” they said. “Seeing what the police do and what the people in power will do to protect their interests … it’s showing clearly the need for real organizing.”
The impact on student organizing has been profound, the protester said. They shared that those who were present on May 7 were “traumatized” and “didn’t get a chance to heal” because of the summer break. Those are conclusions that Prince Lobel also reached in their report.
“Although a core group of protesters was, without question, prepared to be arrested as part of an act of civil disobedience, to a person, the protesters described their encounters with the police that night, especially the State Police, as traumatic,” the report said.
Police footage also shows officers arresting a protester who notified the police they had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that impacts joints and other parts of the body, including one’s ability to walk. State Trooper Sergei Skorupa told the protester they would not get their cane back because it was a “weapon.”
Those are just the instances that were captured on video. Other portions of the night, however, remain hidden from public view.
“Hey, shut off your cameras ‘cause we’re about to talk shit,” Rodriguez can be heard saying at one point. Shortly after, the footage from his body camera ends.
Update: This article has been updated to include a late response from the Massachusetts State Police.
The Shoestring is committed to bringing you ad-free content. We rely on readers to support our work! You can support independent news for Western Mass by visiting our donate page.
divina is an independent reporter covering labor and social movements, pursuing a degree in journalism and social thought & political economy at UMass Amherst. They have worked for three years in legislation, policy, and research on education, child welfare, and race equity. Reach them at divina.cordeiro@proton.me or on Instagram and Twitter @divi_cordeiro
- This author does not have any more posts.
