Ithaca mayor responds to Commons incident as cases drag on

It’s been four months since two young, black Ithacans were arrested on the Commons after being tackled and tased by police, but public engagement remains high while their cases continue. Mayor Svante Myrick offered an apology at Wednesday’s Common Council meeting for what Rose de Groat and Cadji Ferguson, 23 and 26, have endured. But while the two continue to face criminal charges, an internal investigation has cleared the officers involved of wrongdoing.

“That’s a disappointing outcome, because I think we could all see with our own eyes that they overreacted,” Myrick said Wednesday, referring to body camera footage showing officers’ engagement with de Groat and Ferguson on April 6. The City of Ithaca holds police officers to high standards, Myrick said, “and we feel like the officers in this case didn’t rise to this standard, they didn’t meet the level we would expect.”