New York City has agreed to pay millions of dollars to protesters in settling a lawsuit filed months after Bronx police officers beat, abused and unlawfully detained them through “kettling” at a Black Lives Matter protest during the summer of 2020.
The city has agreed to pay more than 300 protesters $21,500 each, who say they were trapped by police and attacked during a rally that took place in Mott Haven on the evening of June 4, 2020 — the first major demonstration in the South Bronx following the death of George Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer in Minnesota on May 25, 2020.
The settlement is subject to the approval of a judge and would represent the conclusion of a case brought by five plaintiffs in federal court in September 2020 on behalf of all the protesters. The settlement sum is believed to be the highest ever paid to participants in a rally where mass arrests were made. The city and police, however, neither admit nor deny wrongdoing.
The protest, according to the lawsuit, began at The Hub, located at 149th Street in the South Bronx, with protesters then marching through Mott Haven. The protesters could be heard chanting “I can’t breathe” — echoing the last words of George Floyd and of Eric Garner, who was killed by a NYPD officer on Staten Island in 2014.
The protesters made their way to East 136th Street, where they were allegedly trapped by police who blocked them off from leaving the area — using a tactic commonly referred to as “kettling” – as an 8:30 p.m. curfew was about to kick in. Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio had imposed the curfew that week after earlier protests across the city took an ugly turn.
According to the complaint, police officers then physically seized, assaulted, and arrested the Bronx protesters.
“Officers with batons and shields struck people at the edge of the encircled group, and officers thrust raised bicycles into the trapped group, forcing the encircled people tightly together…other officers sprayed them with pepper spray,” the lawsuit noted.
The lawsuit added that the officers then arrested more than 300 people and zip-tied them with “flex-cuffs” before processing them at “mass arrest processing centers” and precinct stationhouses. The “zip ties,” according to the suit, were put on too tight and “caused pain, bruising and, in some cases, led to long-term injury.”
A documentary/video of the chaos was posted by Human Rights Watch. The lawsuit alleges that the NYPD planned the whole operation in advance and then complimented themselves afterwards.
Then-NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said that cops handled the Mott Haven demonstration well, saying that it was “executed nearly flawlessly.” The NYPD, however, came under heavy criticism.
The charges brought against the 300 protesters were tossed out of court. The Bronx District Attorney’s office dismissed them in September 2020.
The NYPD, in a statement issued after the settlement was announced, said that 2020 was a difficult time for police and that officers themselves were “suffering under the strains of a global pandemic” and “did their utmost to help facilitate people’s rights to peaceful expression all while addressing acts of lawlessness including wide-scale rioting, mass chaos, violence and destruction.”
Police said that it has taken steps to improve its response to protests in the wake of the 2020 demonstrations. The NYPD added that it has “re-envisioned” its policies and training after receiving feedback from outside agencies that investigated their actions.
