Opinion | Rage and Reaction on the Streets of New York

A nation already reeling from a deadly pandemic and a deep economic crisis was further convulsed this week by the death of another black man at the hands of the police. George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was choked to death by an officer in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, one more casualty in a long history of police abuse that has haunted the country for decades.

In New York, the American city that has suffered the heaviest toll from the coronavirus, the grief and anger erupted at week’s end in three days and nights of protest in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Videos showed that police acted not only against the small number of protesters who became violent but also used disproportionate force against peaceful demonstrators, including elected officials.

In one video, a police car surged into a group of protesters after several people in the crowd threw objects onto the vehicle. Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the actions of police. “If those protesters had just gotten out of the way and not created an attempt to surround that vehicle, we would not be talking about the situation,” he said on NY1 late Saturday night.

As in other cities, most protesters were peaceful, but a small number in the crowd became violent, shattering storefronts and setting police vehicles on fire. One woman from upstate New York was charged with throwing a Molotov cocktail into a police car with four officers inside. The device didn’t go off, and officers were unharmed. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Saturday that “countless” officers had been injured in Friday night’s protests and accused some protesters of throwing bricks and debris at officers.

Yet video showed the nation’s largest police force responding to largely nonviolent crowds with enormous force. Images showed police beating unarmed protesters with batons, and using pepper spray on kneeling demonstrators. One video showed a police officer remove the mask of a black protester with his hands in the air to attack him with pepper spray. State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn, one of several elected officials who attended a protest at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Friday evening, said hundreds of protesters were trying to comply with officers’ orders to move back when police suddenly moved in, forcefully shoving protesters with their bicycles.

Mr. Myrie said he came to the protest hoping to serve as a mediator between police and the protesters. Instead, Mr. Myrie, who is black, was pepper-sprayed in the face by police and arrested. “Please, we were following orders! We’re here to keep the peace!” he said he told police before police pepper-sprayed him.

After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, New York Mayor John Lindsay walked the city streets alongside residents, a sign of respect that helped heal and cool the city.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat elected on a promise to improve the way black and Hispanic New Yorkers were policed, has played a far less visible role. The lack of moral leadership from the mayor over the weekend was disheartening. On Sunday he praised the “restraint” of most officers but said he will appoint a special civilian panel to identify any abusive or illegal acts by the police during the protests.

Fixing all that is broken here will require accountability and leadership. The city should move swiftly to discipline officers who violate the public trust. The State Legislature can do its part, by moving quickly to repeal Section 50-A of the Civil Rights Law that prevents the release of officers’ disciplinary records, a major barrier to police reform in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday he would sign a law repealing the measure.

An army of public servants entrusted to protect Americans treated them as an enemy instead. In the coming weeks and months, New Yorkers deserve a full and independent accounting of what went wrong, and what will be done to bring actual reform to a police department that has largely managed to resist true oversight from City Hall for generations. Mr. Cuomo said Saturday he would ask State Attorney General Letitia James to undertake such a review.

New Yorkers need a police department that respects them as citizens and human beings. Until then, this city that has suffered so much will suffer more.