New York City To Pay Black Lives Matter Demonstrators At Least $21,500 Each After Unlawful Arrest Tactics
New York City has agreed to the proposed settlement for the class action suit filed by demonstrators at a 2020 George Floyd protest. If approved, the city will pay around $7 million to demonstrators who were “arrested, detained, and/or subjected to force by police officers.”
According to the proposed settlement filed in federal court on Tuesday, the city would pay $21,500 each to the 320 demonstrators who participated in the June 4, 2020 protest in the Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood. Eligible class-action suit members given a desk appearance ticket will receive an additional $2,500 each. While the two plaintiffs who were named in the case will receive an additional $21,500 each as a “service award” for helping the case move forward.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs said that the proposed amount is “believed to be the highest per-person settlement in a mass arrest class action lawsuit in New York City history.”
“The settlement, in our view, reflects an acknowledgment by the city that the NYPD’s actions in Mott Haven on June 4 were tragically wrong,” Joshua Moskovitz, one of the attorneys for the protesters, said on Wednesday. The unopposed motion will still need to be reviewed and approved by the court to be enacted.
According to the lawsuit, officers of the New York Police District (NYPD) “arrested and charged the protestors without probable cause and subjected them to excessive force, as part of a planned police action involving some of the most senior members of the NYPD.”
The Mott Haven protest is one of the many that broke out across the country following the brutal murder of Floyd, a Black man, by police officers in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
“NYPD officers descended on protesters with unjustifiable fist and baton strikes, chemical pepper spray attacks, and other acts of physical violence. At numerous protests, officers encircled groups of protesters to prevent them from escaping such violence using a tactic repeatedly endorsed by NYPD leadership called ‘kettling,’” the plaintiffs alleged in the suit.
The NYPD has said that the protests have prompted the department to revamp its policy and training for policing large-scale demonstrations. But the defendants in the case, including former Mayor Bill de Blasio, denied fault or liability as part of the settlement agreement.
“Defendants deny any and all liability and deny that they had or have a policy, or engaged in or currently engage in a pattern or practice, that deprived persons of their rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of New York,” the filing said.
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