Huge damages. New York City will pay more than $20,000 to some 320 protesters who were victims of a controversial police operation in the Bronx in June 2020, during anti-racism demonstrations that followed the death of George Floyd and were marred by violence, according to a court document.
In the weeks following the death of this African-American killed on May 25, 2020 by a white police officer in Minneapolis, New York, like other major cities in the United States, had seen thousands of people take to the streets to protest against racism. Some demonstrations had degenerated into scenes of looting and police violence had been denounced, especially in the megalopolis of the American east coast.
In early February, a city complaints commission recommended disciplinary action against police officers in 146 cases of violence, abuse of authority or insult. The agreement reached by the city of New York, which must still be validated by federal justice, concerns only one demonstration, on June 4, 2020 in the Bronx, according to a court document filed Tuesday in the procedure and released Wednesday by media.
Police are accused of having used an encirclement technique that day to prevent any movement of the protesters, “arrested and charged without lawful cause, and subjected to excessive force”, according to the court document. In its report, the city commission looked into the case and listed, among other things, complaints against “some policemen getting on vehicles and beating protesters with truncheons”, the indiscriminate use of tear gas and handcuffs.
Asked by Agence France-Presse, the New York police responded that these complaints followed “arrests” for “violations of the curfew” then in place at 8 p.m. and decided by the Democratic mayor of the time, Bill de Blasio, after incidents at previous protests.
Police add that this was a “difficult time” for their officers in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that they had “made every effort to facilitate the right to peaceful expression, while facing acts of anarchy”. However, she adds that she has “redesigned” her policy and training for policing large-scale protests.
