New York has agreed to pay at least $21,500 to each of the hundreds of demonstrators at a 2020 George Floyd protest in the Bronx who were “arrested, detained, and/or subjected to force by police officers,” according to a proposed settlement filed in federal court.
The settlement, If approved, could result in the city paying out millions to approximately 320 people who were involved in demonstrations on June 4 in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, according to an unopposed motion in the class action lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Attorneys for the protesters who sued said they believe it to be the “highest per-person settlement in a mass arrest class action lawsuit in New York City history,” they said in a release.
In the filing, the city agreed to pay eligible class-action members $21,500 each, as well as another $2,500 to each person who received a desk appearance ticket.
The two named plaintiffs in the case would receive another $21,500 “service award,” according to the proposed settlement, which must be reviewed and approved by the court before taking effect.
“The settlement, in our view, reflects an acknowledgment by the city that the NYPD’s actions in Mott Haven on June 4 were tragically wrong,”
Joshua Moskovitz, an attorney for the protesters, said
A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said in statement that the 2020 protests were a “challenging moment for the department as officers who themselves were suffering under the strains of a global pandemic 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.”
Hundreds of protesters who were demonstrating against police brutality and racism after Floyd’s death were encircled and corralled by a group of police officers wearing riot gear and riding bicycles in a controversial practice known as “kettling.”
