BLM protesters to receive $21 each from New York City Hall as compensation for police brutality

The City of New York agreed to pay $21 to each of the hundreds of BLM demonstrators. We are talking about those who were blocked by the police in the Bronx during protests against racial injustice in 500, and then beaten with batons, reports New York Times.

If a judge approves the settlement, filed in federal court on March 1, the amount would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a mass arrest class action lawsuit. This could cost the city $4-6 million.

The case involved approximately 300 people who were arrested on June 4, 2020, in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx during protests against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers the week before. His death sparked protests across the country, including in New York. Here, thousands of people demonstrated in May and June.

On June 4, police surrounded hundreds of protesters who had gathered on 136th Street. And then she didn't let them leave.

On the subject: Russian-speaking residents of Brooklyn protested: they are afraid of losing their apartments

They were shackled with tight plastic handcuffs. Moreover, the officers were without masks, although the pandemic was raging then. Officers with batons swung at the protesters and attacked them with pepper spray.

Samira Sierra, 31, one of the protesters who sued the city, said police subjected her to "violence" during the demonstrations.

At the time, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea advocated a strategy to "cordon off" the protesters. According to them, it was necessary because the protesters violated the curfew. Looters looted parts of Manhattan, although the demonstrations were mostly peaceful.

According to the lawsuit, the police surrounded the protesters before the 20:00 pm curfew, so they could not go home.

“Many protesters were injured and bleeding. Some fainted, lost consciousness and convulsed,” the lawsuit says.

According to Rob Rickner, one of the protesters' lawyers, the cases of those arrested were eventually closed. And the “cordon” strategy was part of a “pre-planned show of force.”

A police statement said that two and a half years after the protests, many of the police department's rules for responding to large-scale demonstrations have been revised. These changes were made based on internal reviews and recommendations from three external agencies that investigated police actions during the BLM protests.

“The NYPD remains committed to continually improving its practices in every possible way,” it noted.

“The 2020 protests were a challenging moment for the department. The police, who themselves suffered under the stress caused by the global pandemic, did everything possible to help people exercise their rights to peaceful expression, while combating acts of lawlessness, including large-scale riots, mass chaos, violence and destruction, ”said in a statement.

Lawyers for the demonstrators called the agreement "historic". They said that prior to this agreement, the highest amount paid per person in case of mass arrests was in 2010. A federal judge then awarded $18 per person to demonstrators who were mass arrested during a 000 protest outside the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings in Washington, DC.

The final amount that New York will have to pay in the Bronx case is not yet clear

While about 330 people were eligible to receive payments, nearly 90 of them have already entered into separate lawsuits with the city. Other protesters may have chosen to file separate lawsuits against the city. Especially those people who reported more serious injuries during clashes with police.

The agreement comes weeks after the city released figures showing it paid $121 million last year to settle police misconduct cases. This amount, the largest in five years, was awarded mainly to people whose criminal sentences were overturned years after the trials. It also included payments for lawsuits filed after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

The city and protesters' attorneys agreed to a settlement over the Bronx protests in December. But they asked the court to file a motion detailing the settlement agreement in February in order to give both parties time to finalize it.

The class action lawsuit was filed by 5 protesters - Samira Sierra and her sister Amali Sierra, Ricardo Nigaloni, Alex Gutierrez and Charles Wood.

Shocking scenes of looting, brawls between police and protesters, and the destruction of police cars led then-Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to announce on June 1 that they would send twice as many police officers to the city and impose a curfew.