{"id":1143720,"date":"2023-07-20T04:58:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T04:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/production.public.theintercept.cloud\/?p=436508"},"modified":"2023-07-20T04:58:18","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T04:58:18","slug":"nypd-to-pay-largest-protester-settlement-ever-for-abuses-during-george-floyd-uprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/20\/nypd-to-pay-largest-protester-settlement-ever-for-abuses-during-george-floyd-uprising\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD to Pay Largest Protester Settlement Ever For Abuses During George Floyd Uprising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New York City<\/u> reached a historic settlement this week on behalf of more than 1,300 people who were attacked by police<\/a> while protesting the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plaintiffs claimed<\/a> that the New York Police Department violated protesters\u2019 civil and constitutional rights by making mass arrests, using excessive force, using pepper spray improperly, and using a tactic called kettling<\/a> to trap and arrest protesters ahead of an imposed curfew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed settlement will pay out $13 million to 1,380 protesters \u2014 about $10,000 per person \u2014 the largest total payout to protesters in a class action suit in the United States, according to the plaintiffs. The settlement did not impose any reforms on the NYPD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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What the suit means for policing will depend on how New Yorkers and the city respond, said Gideon Oliver, an attorney for the plaintiffs. \u201cJudged by that yardstick, this is a huge victory,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cBut whether or not it changes police practices is another story, and depends on how New Yorkers \u2014 and the city government \u2014 react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t let the police count this win for protesters as just another cost of doing business,\u201d he said, \u201cas they have so many times in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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The settlement comes four months after another major settlement between the city and Floyd protesters in March that paid a record $7 million<\/a> to more than 300 people. In both cases, forensic reconstruction<\/a> of the events played a key role in winning the settlements. Several other major cities have paid out large settlements to protesters in recent lawsuits<\/a> aided by forensic reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between late May and early June 2020, at the height of the movement for racial justice sparked by Floyd\u2019s killing, protesters advocating against police misconduct were met with extreme forms of police abuse. \u201cThousands exercised their constitutional rights to protest and were met with violence and indiscriminate arrests by the NYPD,\u201d the plaintiffs said in a Thursday press release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can see repeatedly, city after city, situation after situation, that the police are strategically, systematically violating our civil rights.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great when we can use technology to our benefit because we know it\u2019s been used against us so often,\u201d Savitri Durkee, a plaintiff in the suit, told The Intercept. \u201cUnfortunately, we can\u2019t just rely on sunshine and the public interest to see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, \u201cWe can see repeatedly, city after city, situation after situation, that the police are strategically, systematically violating our civil rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiffs in the case noted that police had responded to other protests, including \u201cBlue Lives Matter\u201d and pro-police demonstrations, without using the force displayed against racial justice protesters. \u201cIn other words, it is the message of the protest that determines whether Defendants will respond with violent tactics and indiscriminate mass arrests,\u201d the plaintiffs wrote in their suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after the<\/u> suit was filed in 2021, the city moved to dismiss the case, arguing<\/a> that the protests had passed and that the city had already made changes at the NYPD and implemented other reforms recommended in the wake of the protests. In July 2021<\/a>, a judge dismissed parts of the complaint that singled out city officials but granted others, allowing the case to move forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit relied on thousands of videos from more than 80 locations, including footage from police body cameras and helicopter surveillance. The deluge of video was sorted, analyzed, and reconstructed by SITU Research, a group that does visual investigations related to injustices and civil liberties. SITU Research has worked on a handful of recent cases<\/a> that relied on forensic reconstruction and resulted in major settlements for protesters. <\/p>\n\n\n

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While settlements for class action plaintiffs in cases of police brutality have been common throughout recent history, more recent settlements paid to protesters have broken state and national records. The growing size and frequency of settlements has drawn attention to the financial burden that police misconduct places on public coffers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shift, however, is unlikely to have a major impact on police conduct without broader institutional changes to policing, said Brad Samuels, director at SITU Research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile this settlement and the amounts paid to protesters does represent an important form of redress, our larger goal remains enduring change in policing \u2014 not just in New York City but across the United States,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cOne thing I am certain of is that surveillance alone, whether in the hands of the state or its citizenry, will not be the agent of meaningful change. While it was clearly impactful to have ample video documentation in this case, we need to continually and critically assess how we are using these tools and to what ends. I am convinced there is much more that can be done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile this settlement and the amounts paid to protesters does represent an important form of redress, our larger goal remains enduring change in policing.\u201d\u00a0<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For the protesters behind the suit, the payout was a welcome first step but left much work to be done to address police misconduct and shore up the right to protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis doesn\u2019t begin to address the injustice. It just gives us a little bit more leeway to address the injustice,\u201d said Durkee, the plaintiff. \u201cThe problem we are protesting stands. It is exactly how it was three years ago. All this settlement does is thaw a little bit the chill that has lain over the protest movement since.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post NYPD to Pay Largest Protester Settlement Ever For Abuses During George Floyd Uprising<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What plaintiffs said was the largest protest payout ever was helped along by a forensic reconstruction of the NYPD\u2019s attack on demonstrators.<\/p>\n

The post NYPD to Pay Largest Protester Settlement Ever For Abuses During George Floyd Uprising<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1143720"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157779,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143720\/revisions\/1157779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}