New York City agreed to pay a sum of $21,500 to nearly 300 protesters in connection to a class action lawsuit for a 2020 incident in South Bronx.
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Pending approval from a federal judge, the total settlement could amount to anywhere between $4 and $6 million. The multi-million dollar sum would be the highest New York City has awarded per person in a class action lawsuit, according to The New York Times. Nearly 90 plaintiffs apart of the lawsuit have reportedly already settled. The protest associated with the lawsuit occurred in 2020 on June 4 — days after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed the unarmed Black man and father George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for over eight minutes during detainment. Participants of the gathering a part of a series of nationwide protests targeting police brutality ended up clashing with NYPD officers in the evening once police began corralling protesters.
Peaceful Protest in The Bronx Turned VIOLENT BY NYPD. ❗️THREAD❗️ pic.twitter.com/lc8gY3QRLU
— Chesimard (@StarkVonDoom) June 5, 2020
The class action lawsuit was originally filed in July 2020 by protesters Samira Sierra, Amali Sierra, Ricardo Nigaglioni, Alex Gutierrez, and Charles Wood. The suit against the city of New York named former Gov. Bill De Blasio, former NYPD chief Terry Monahan, and a number of additional defendants. The plaintiffs accused the NYPD of using unnecessary force on peaceful protesters and leaving individuals “injured and bleeding,” with some participants reportedly losing consciousness. At the time of the protest, former NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea described the police response as a “planned mass arrest,” that was “executed nearly flawlessly.”
However, according to a 99-page report from Human Rights Watch, which interviewed and reviewed accounts from 81 people involved in the protest, NYPD conduct amounted “to serious violations of international human rights law.”
Human Rights Watch said the NYPD's violent conduct during the June 4, 2020, protest in the Bronx amounted to "serious violations of international human rights law." https://t.co/yH5pX85fPB
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) March 1, 2023
Video evidence shows that NYPD officers began forcing protestors to congregate within the confines of a city block in the Mott Haven neighborhood around 7:45 PM. As a result, participants broke Blasio’s 8 PM curfew, which was imposed as an attempt to combat looting and other crimes during the social unrest. At the stroke of 8 PM, NYPD began mobilizing on the crowd and making arrests of protestors and even essential workers who were exempt from the curfew. Officers then purportedly began “kettling,” and or containing and surrounding, protesters and allegedly refused to allow them to leave. Multiple reports allege NYPD officers pepper sprayed protestors, beat them with batons and held them for hours after tying them up using zip-ties.
The class action lawsuit associated with the June 4 protest in the Bronx could add a hefty sum to the already record-high tally for police misconduct settlements. In a report New York City published last month, settlements in 2022 associated with police misconduct reached a total value of $121 million — the highest level since 2018. For perspective, data from the Citizens Budget Commission, NYPD’s budget is around $11 billion, which is close to 10 percent of the $102.7 billion preliminary budget for New York City in 2024.
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Despite the occurrence in the Bronx in 2020, studies show that an estimated 80% of protests following the police brutality death of George Floyd had no reported violent outbreaks. Review the 12-minute-long video Human Rights Watch produced which reconstructs the events that transpired during the protest on June 4.