UNITED STATES NEWS

New York City agrees to pay $13 million to 2020 racial injustice protesters in historic class action

Jul 19, 2023, 8:28 PM | Updated: Jul 20, 2023, 4:40 am

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 1,300 people who were arrested or beaten by police during racial injustice demonstrations that swept through the city during the summer of 2020.

If approved by a judge, the settlement, which was filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, would be among the most expensive payouts ever awarded in a lawsuit over mass arrests, experts said.

The lawsuit focused on 18 of the many protests that erupted in New York City in the week following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. With certain exceptions, people arrested or subjected to force by NYPD officers at those events will each be eligible for $9,950 in compensation, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.

The agreement, one of several stemming from the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, allows the city to avoid a trial that could be both expensive and politically fraught.

It comes as many other cities across the U.S. are negotiating their own settlements with protesters who spilled into the streets to decry racist police brutality after Floyd’s death, a period of unrest that saw 10,000 people arrested in the span of a few days.

Attorneys with the National Lawyers Guild, which represented the plaintiffs in New York, accused NYPD leaders of depriving protesters of their 1st Amendment rights through a “coordinated” campaign of indiscriminate brutality and unlawful arrests.

Through more than two years of litigation, attorneys for the city maintained that police were responding to a chaotic and unprecedented situation, pointing to some unruly protests in which police vehicles were set on fire and officers pelted with rocks and plastic bottles.

A spokesperson for the NYPD deferred questions to the city’s Law Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.

During some of the 2020 protest marches, officers deployed a crowd control tactic known as kettling against peaceful protesters, corralling them in tight spaces and attacking them with batons and pepper spray before making mass arrests.

Adama Sow, one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said their group of marchers were trapped by police without warning. Sow and the other arrestees were placed in zip ties until their hands turned purple, then held in a sweltering correctional bus for several hours.

“It was so disorganized, but so intentional,” Sow said. “They seemed set on traumatizing everyone.”

The city invoked qualified immunity, which protects police officers from lawsuits stemming from lawful work performed in the line of duty, and defended the decision to arrest medics and legal observers as within the rights of the department.

While attorneys for the plaintiffs cited past crackdowns on large demonstrations, including during the 2004 Republican National Convention, as evidence of longstanding “systemic violations” by the NYPD, attorneys for the city said there was no systematic effort to deprive people of their right to protest.

“There is no history — or present or future — of unconstitutional policing,” Georgia Pestana, an attorney for the city, wrote in a memo. “There is no frequent deprivation of constitutional rights.”

The lawsuit named former Mayor Bill de Blasio and retired NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea as well as other police leaders as defendants. Under the settlement agreement, neither the city nor the NYPD is required to admit any wrongdoing.

Protesters who were arrested on certain charges — including trespassing, property destruction, assaulting an officer, arson or weapons possession — will be excluded from the settlement. Those who were seen on video blocking police from making arrests may also be ineligible.

Unlike some other lawsuits related to the 2020 protests, the class action was not meant to force the NYPD to change its practices. There are several other lawsuits aimed at injunctive relief that are ongoing, including one brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James that calls for a federal monitor to oversee the NYPD’s policing of protests.

Another class action settlement announced earlier this year would award $21,500 to those arrested by police during one demonstration in the Bronx, a payout that could total around $10 million including legal fees.

Separately, more than 600 people have brought individual claims against New York City related to police action during the 2020 protests, according to the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander. Roughly half of them have resulted in settlements and resolutions, costing the city nearly $12 million to date.

Wylie Stecklow, an attorney for the protesters in the class action lawsuit, said the growing cost to taxpayers should serve as a “red flag” for city leaders about the NYPD’s inability to correct its “decades old problem with constitutionally compliant protest policing.”

“While the arc of the moral universe is indeed long, sometimes it needs reform to bend towards justice” he said.

United States News

Associated Press

New GOP-favored Georgia congressional map nears passage as the end looms for redistricting session

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia special session to redraw congressional and legislative voting district maps is likely to end Thursday after a House committee on Wednesday advanced a Republican-favored congressional map that targets Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath’s current district. However, the wrangling is unlikely to end there, with those who brought the challenges that […]

25 minutes ago

President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of ...

Associated Press

Biden’s campaign will not commit yet to participating in general election debates in 2024

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s campaign is not yet committing to general election debates next year, the latest sign that a staple of modern White House campaigns may not be in play in 2024. Quentin Fulks, Biden’s top deputy campaign manager, told reporters Wednesday that the president’s reelection campaign would “look at the […]

29 minutes ago

Associated Press

Nevada grand jury indicts 6 fake Donald Trump electors

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans who submitted certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state, making Nevada the third to seek charges against so-called “fake electors.” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford began investigating the fake electors last month. He said […]

35 minutes ago

Associated Press

Juanita Castro, anti-communist sister of Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul, dies in Miami at 90

MIAMI (AP) — Juanita Castro, the sister of Cuban rulers Fidel and Raúl Castro who worked with the CIA against their communist government, has died in Miami at 90. Florida had been her home since shortly after fleeing the island nearly 60 years ago. Journalist María Antonieta Collins, who co-wrote Juanita Castro’s 2009 book, “Fidel […]

38 minutes ago

Associated Press

Police: Suspect dead amid reports of multiple victims in shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police said a suspect was found dead Wednesday as officers responded what officials of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, called a “confirmed active shooter” on campus. The university said on X, formerly Twitter, the shooter was at the Beam Hall, Frank and Estella Building, home of UNLV’s Lee Business School, […]

48 minutes ago

FILE - Republican presidential candidates from left, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov....

Associated Press

Four GOP candidates will be on the debate stage, while Trump holds a fundraiser. Follow live updates

Four Republican presidential hopefuls — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — will be participating in Wednesday night’s debate in Alabama. The early front-runner for the GOP nomination, former President Donald Trump, will be holding a fundraiser in Florida instead. […]

50 minutes ago

Sponsored Articles

Follow @KTAR923...

The best ways to honor our heroes on Veterans Day and give back to the community

Veterans Day is fast approaching and there's no better way to support our veterans than to donate to the Military Assistance Mission.

...

Dierdre Woodruff

Interest rates may have peaked. Should you buy a CD, high-yield savings account, or a fixed annuity?

Interest rates are the highest they’ve been in decades, and it looks like the Fed has paused hikes. This may be the best time to lock in rates for long-term, low-risk financial products like fixed annuities.

...

Midwestern University

Midwestern University: innovating Arizona health care education

Midwestern University’s Glendale Campus near Loop 101 and 59th Avenue is an established leader in health care education and one of Arizona’s largest and most valuable health care resources.

New York City agrees to pay $13 million to 2020 racial injustice protesters in historic class action