Good Job Ari!
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From Jeff Thompson's Enjoy Mediation Blog November 2009 |
Great job Ari!
Honorable Mention was awarded to Ari Fontecchio of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law for his essay entitled “Naming, Framing and Taming: Why Timing and Emotional Intelligence Really Matter in Crisis Intervention.
Ari interviewed me months ago on how I, along with the entire NYPD Community Affairs Bureau, used various conflict resolution skills during the emotionallly charged Tibetan Protests in New York City during the Spring of 2008.
Below is an exerpt of his paper. You can read the entire paper (which you should!) [here] and read the official announcement [here].
The Boskey Dispute Resolution Essay Competition honors the memory of James B. Boskey, humanitarian, Seton Hall University law professor, and mediator, who became known and beloved world-over for his publication of The Alternative Newsletter, a resource guide on ADR published quarterly.
The Boskey Dispute Resolution Essay Competition is a project of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s Law Schools Committee, learn more. The Essay Competition is chaired by Professor Jean Sternlight, Saltman Professor, UNLV Boyd School of Law & Director, Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution.
From the paper (starting at page 20)
A. Protests
In March 2008, Tibetan protesters gathered outside the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan,
echoing cries in Lhasa, Tibet to end occupation by the Chinese government.94 During a month of protesting, the crowd ranged from 500 to 1000 protesters, and in its most escalated moment,
protesters broke through police barricades, throwing rocks through windows of the Consulate.95
Remarkably, using integrative techniques such as framing, matching, and re-framing, the New
York Police Department in conjunction with its Community Affairs Bureau (“CAB”) brought the
protest to a peaceful resolution, completely avoiding escalation to a riot.96
A. Protests
In March 2008, Tibetan protesters gathered outside the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan,
echoing cries in Lhasa, Tibet to end occupation by the Chinese government.94 During a month of protesting, the crowd ranged from 500 to 1000 protesters, and in its most escalated moment,
protesters broke through police barricades, throwing rocks through windows of the Consulate.95
Remarkably, using integrative techniques such as framing, matching, and re-framing, the New
York Police Department in conjunction with its Community Affairs Bureau (“CAB”) brought the
protest to a peaceful resolution, completely avoiding escalation to a riot.96
Jeff Thompson, an NYPD officer in the Special Projects Unit of the Community Affairs
Bureau and an expert in cultural outreach in the Tibetan community, was on the front lines.97
Prior to the conflict, Thompson had begun building relationships within the Tibetan community,
which helped him and other CAB officers recognize the ways in which the protesters framed the
conflict. Thompson’s relationships with the Executive Boards of various Tibetan organizations
and with monks and monastics from the spiritual community helped him identify the
stakeholders during the conflict and teach him about the deep-seated historical conflicts between the Chinese and Tibetan cultures.98
In this way, Thompson and his colleagues had already fashioned a strong third side99 that they could leverage during the large-scale conflict to come. Additionally, this network of relationships familiarized Thompson and his fellow officers with the Tibetans’ concept of cultural identity, or their attunement frames.100 This armed CAB with the ability to mirror and match the protesters’ frames even as tempers flared in front of the Chinese Consulate.
For example, during the protest, Thompson spoke into the megaphone using Tibetan phrases and prayers,101 demonstrating an ability to match the Tibetans’ cultural awareness. This technique of matching proved so effective that over the course of the twentytwo day conflict, protesters came to endearingly call Thompson “om mani padme hum,”102 the introduction to a prayer Thompson repeated to demonstrate cultural understanding.103 Once he had successfully matched the protesters’ attunement frame, he was able to move towards reframing the conflict towards de-escalation and eventually to resolution.
To do so, Thompson and his colleagues brought in high-ranking monks to stand beside them during the protest’s peak where police barricades were breached.104 While protesters had a tendency, at first, to view CAB as an opposing stakeholder in the conflict, having monks by the
sides of the officers send visual cues of neutrality, which had a calming effect on the protesters.
By enhancing the strength of the third side, Thompson and his colleagues were more likely to be
viewed as neutral mediators—standing next to spiritually revered monks—rather than firstperson negotiators, hostile to the interests of the Tibetans.
Ultimately, through the efforts of CAB and other NYPD officers, a resolution was reached where a highly respected monk sang a prayer of solidarity over the megaphone, and at its conclusion, the crowd agreed to disband.105
The critical aspect in reaching this resolution was the officers’ ability to convince the
protesters that Thompson and his colleagues were not entirely stakeholders, or negotiators
representing the city, but that they were mediators at the core of a strong third side, an extension of the mediator. The officers’ ability to contain the protest and prevent a riot, can be traced in no small part to their ability to time this transition between roles, and to wait for a moment of crystallization where taming the conflict became possible through properly matching the protesters’ attunement frame.
protesters that Thompson and his colleagues were not entirely stakeholders, or negotiators
representing the city, but that they were mediators at the core of a strong third side, an extension of the mediator. The officers’ ability to contain the protest and prevent a riot, can be traced in no small part to their ability to time this transition between roles, and to wait for a moment of crystallization where taming the conflict became possible through properly matching the protesters’ attunement frame.
--------------------------------------------------------------
94 Chronology: Day-by-Day Record of Tibet Protests, REUTERS, Mar. 20, 2008, available at
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP309236.
95 Thompson, supra note 3.
96 Id.
97 Id.
98 Id.
99 The third side in this case was comprised of numerous stakeholders in the conflict, including the police department, patrol officers, various Tibetan groups and an entire hierarchy of monks and monastics from the spiritual community.
100 See supra text accompanying notes 52-57.
101 Specifically, Thompson repeatedly recited, “Om Mani Padme Hum,” a well known Tibetan chant for inner peace.
102 The meaning of this mantra is difficult to translate into English, but its effect is to calm those who speak and hear it, “invok[ing] the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.
Viewing the written form of the mantra is said to have the same effect.”
www.dharma-haven.org, Om Mani Padme Hum: The Meaning of the Mantra in Tibetan Buddhism,
http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/meaning-of-om-mani-padme-hung.htm#Meaning (last visited Apr. 20, 2009).
103 Jeff Thompson, supra note 95.
104 Id.
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Website: www.EnjoyMediation.com
Additional articles by Jeff Thompson
94 Chronology: Day-by-Day Record of Tibet Protests, REUTERS, Mar. 20, 2008, available at
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP309236.
95 Thompson, supra note 3.
96 Id.
97 Id.
98 Id.
99 The third side in this case was comprised of numerous stakeholders in the conflict, including the police department, patrol officers, various Tibetan groups and an entire hierarchy of monks and monastics from the spiritual community.
100 See supra text accompanying notes 52-57.
101 Specifically, Thompson repeatedly recited, “Om Mani Padme Hum,” a well known Tibetan chant for inner peace.
102 The meaning of this mantra is difficult to translate into English, but its effect is to calm those who speak and hear it, “invok[ing] the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.
Viewing the written form of the mantra is said to have the same effect.”
www.dharma-haven.org, Om Mani Padme Hum: The Meaning of the Mantra in Tibetan Buddhism,
http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/meaning-of-om-mani-padme-hung.htm#Meaning (last visited Apr. 20, 2009).
103 Jeff Thompson, supra note 95.
104 Id.
Biography
Jeff Thompson is a certified international mediator. He is also a law enforcement detective in New York. His law enforcement role include a being a communication and conflict specialist, interfaith dialogue, developing and implementing community engagement programs, and designing training workshops.
Jeff is currently a PhD candidate researching nonverbal communication and mediation at Griffith University Law School. He also received his MS in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from the Creighton University School of Law. Jeff has presented and trained on the topic of conflict, mediation, communication and nonverbal communication internationally and has been published and featured with numerous international media organizations. He currently writes also at PsychologyToday.com.
(All posts by Jeff Thompson represent his personal reflections and opinions as a mediator and not that of any organization.)
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