New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million — or nearly $10,000 each — to demonstrators who were arrested or beaten by cops during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.
The proposed class-action settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, would be one of the most expensive payouts awarded in connection with a mass arrest lawsuit in history, according to experts.
The agreement, filed in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, would award most of the approximately 1,300 plaintiffs who were arrested or subjected to force by police about $10,000 each, according to their attorneys.
The lawsuit, filed against the city, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner Dermot Shea, as well as other police officials and officers, argued that thousands of New Yorkers who “exercised their constitutional rights” were “corralled into places where they could not escape” during the widespread demonstrations.
….“They seemed set on traumatizing everyone.”
The settlement agreement applies to protestors at 18 marches or demonstrations in Brooklyn and Manhattan between May 28 and June 4 of 2020.
During more than two years of litigation, city attorneys argued police tactics had been scaled to manage the chaotic situation, and pointed to incidents where some unruly protestors had thrown objects at police or set their cars on fire.
The violent punks were ‘traumatized’. Boo. Fucking. Hoo.
This is some of the shit they pulled in NYC:
A Black Lives Matter march through Midtown Manhattan turned violent Friday night, with 11 protesters arrested.
The NYPD reported that two officers suffered minor injuries during the protest, which was attended by about 100 marchers; officials could not immediately say how the cops were hurt.
At least some of those arrested were accused of attacking Daily News photographer Sam Costanza at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 54th Street in the mistaken belief that he was a cop, sources said.
The photog was surrounded and struck after one of the marchers recognized him from a BLM protest outside the NYPD’s 6th Precinct house in Greenwich Village last year, according to sources.
The agitated protester began yelling, “He’s a cop,” inciting many of his fellow marchers.
About a dozen people surrounded the photog, shoving him and beating him with their fists and other objects, sources said.
Eight people were arrested Friday night when a group of 150 Black Lives Matter protesters smashed windows and graffitied the storefronts of Lower Manhattan chain stores and banks, police sources said.
At least two Starbucks, five banks and a Duane Reade had their windows busted, causing an estimated $100,000 in damage.
Police recovered two stun guns, smoke grenades, and burglary and graffiti tools.The protest had been advertised on Twitter by groups calling themselves the “New Afrikan Black Panther Party” and the “Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement.”
One of the arrested protesters was from Portland, Ore., and another was from Iowa, the sources said.
All were charged with rioting; some were additionally charged with weapons and burglary tool possession.
The protest began at 6 p.m. at Foley Square; protesters lit trash can fires and scrawled graffiti — including the word “Abolition” — as they made their way north.
“Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground,” the group was recorded chanting at one point.
Three of the banks damaged were on Seventh Avenue, between 14th and 20th streets, police sources said.
BLM thugs rampaged across the country, committing arson, vandalism, assault, and murder. It lasted 7 months with 23 people shot dead, 700 police officers injured, and over 150 federal buildings damaged.
And NYC is paying them off.
Related article:
https://nypost.com/2020/09/05/blm-protesters-smash-nyc-starbucks-window-in-stunning-video/
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