Things are looking up for the New York City protesters that faced the police during the 2020 racial injustice demonstrations.
New York City has agreed to pay over $13 million to approximately 1,300 people in a civil rights lawsuit, ABC News reports. The protesters were arrested or beaten by police during several racial injustice protests during the summer of 2020.
The lawsuit targeted 18 specific demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. According to the suit, participants who were arrested or subjected to police force by NYPD officers will be eligible for $9,950 in compensation.
If a judge approves, the settlement will be one of the most expensive payouts ever awarded in a lawsuit for numerous arrests and allows the city to avoid an expensive trial.
During the marches, protesters claimed officers used a crowd control tactic called “kettling,” which cornered them into tight spaces in order to attack them with batons and pepper spray before arresting them. Lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild represented the plaintiffs and accused NYPD leaders of depriving protesters of their 1st Amendment rights with a well-thought-out campaign to greenlight unlawful arrests and indiscriminate brutality.
However, NYPD’s attorneys stood their ground, saying their officers were simply responding to a chaotic situation. They pointed the finger at other protests where police vehicles were set on fire and officers were hit with rocks and plastic bottles.
Gideon Oliver, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the suit was about more than money as it will define how different police policies are implemented.
“Judged by that yardstick, this is a huge victory,” Oliver said, according to the Intercept. “But whether or not it changes police practices is another story, and depends on how New Yorkers—and the city government—react. We can’t let the police count this win for protesters as just another cost of doing business.”
The protesters say the payout is a huge step moving forward but there is still work to do to address police misconduct.
