New York City has agreed to pay more than $21,000 each to hundreds of protesters who were surrounded, arrested and subjected to excessive force by police during a 2020 George Floyd protest, according to court documents.
A proposed settlement filed in federal court Tuesday night said the city would compensate about 320 people who participated in the June 4, 2020 protest in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx.
In the filing, the city agreed to pay eligible class members $21,500 each, as well as another $2,500 to each person who received a ticket to appear at the desk. The two named plaintiffs in the case would receive another $21,500 «service award» under the proposed settlement, which must be reviewed and approved by the court before it takes effect.
“The settlement, in our view, reflects an acknowledgment by the city that the actions of the NYPD in Mott Haven on June 4 were tragically wrong,” Joshua Moskovitz, a lawyer for the protesters, said Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said in a statement that the 2020 protests were a «challenging time for the department, as officers suffering under the stresses of a global pandemic did everything possible to help facilitate people’s rights to peaceful expression in the meantime. address acts of lawlessness, including large-scale riots, mass chaos, violence, and destruction.”
The lawsuit alleges that the NYPD «arrested and charged protesters 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.»
Hundreds of protesters protesting against police brutality and racism following Floyd’s death were surrounded and cornered by a group of policemen wearing riot gear and riding bicycles in a controversial practice known as «kettling.»
“The New York police, in an operation masterminded by the highest levels of police officers, intimidated protesters on East 136th Street between Brook Avenue and Brown Place and unleashed a brutal assault on more than 300 people, who were injured. , arrested and detained for hours.” lawyers for the protesters said in a statement about the proposed deal.
“This is believed to be the highest settlement per person in a mass arrest class action lawsuit in New York City history,” they said.
“On June 4, 2020, during the height of a global health crisis, along with 300 Black and Brown people, I was raped by the NYPD,” Samira Sierra, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in the statement. . “We had every right to protest, yet New York City made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are willing to be terrorized.”
Floyd, a black man, was killed by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, sparking a national and global reckoning over racial disparities and fueling calls for police reform.
The NYPD spokesman said the Floyd protests prompted the department to make changes to its policies and training for large-scale demonstrations.