NYC TO PAY LARGEST CIVIL RIGHTS SETTLEMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY TO GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTERS
TOTAL COST SO FAR FOR THE NYPD’S VIOLENT SUPPRESSION OF PEACEFUL POLITICAL DISSENT FOLLOWING THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD BY MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: $36 MILLION AND COUNTING.
Anti-police brutality protesters, motivated by the police murder of George Floyd, on the Brooklyn Bridge, June 9, 2020. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
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Nearly $14 million—plus millions in legal fees yet to be determined—is what it's costing New York City to end a politically-charged lawsuit brought by 1,380 people beaten or arrested by the NYPD for peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police in 2020.
That's according to a historic settlement agreement in the case submitted for approval in Federal court late Wednesday night.
“It appears to be the largest single settlement for mass arrest of protesters in American history,” Ron Kuby, an experienced and successful civil rights lawyer not connected to the litigation, told The Free Lance. “I can think of no other comparable case.”
Under the terms of the agreement, each of the plaintiffs in the case will be paid $9,950, for a total of $13.7 million.
Hon. Colleen McMahon, the judge presiding over the lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan, is expected to approve the deal.
The actual, total cost to the City for the settlement is going to be even higher since the settlement does not cover legal fees for the 16 lawyers from seven law firms who successfully represented the protesters.
In comparison, the City spent $18 million to settle federal civil rights lawsuits brought by peaceful protesters beaten and arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention. The State of New York spent $8 million to settle claims brought by the 1,281 Attica prisoners who occupied D-block yard to protest prison conditions in 1971. 32 of them were executed by Corrections Officers or other police; another 80 were wounded. Survivors were beaten and tortured.
The record-breaking George Floyd-related settlement is the second agreement made in a group of federal civil rights lawsuits filed by Floyd protesters against the NYPD and the City. New York spent about $10 million to settle another one of the lawsuits brought by a group of protesters "kettled" in a quasi-military NYPD ambush in the Bronx on June 4, 2020. The NYPD's tactics were so violent some people call it the "Battle of Brook Avenue."
Additionally, more than 600 people have brought individual claims against the City for unconstitutional policing during the 2020 protests. Roughly half of them have resulted in settlements and resolutions, costing the city nearly $12 million to date, the Associated Press reports.
That brings the total taxpayer tab so far for the City's and the NYPD’s violent suppression of peaceful political dissent following Floyd's murder by police to a whopping $36-plus million—and counting.
Not including these settlements and others from late 2022, the City has paid out $121 million for police misconduct since 2018.
The 46 year-old Floyd was cuffed by cops outside a Minneapolis grocery store after employees alleged Floyd paid for a pack of cigarettes with a phony $20 dollar bill. Floyd refused to get into the police car and fell to the ground.
Police officer Derek Chauvin punished him by kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, according to bystander video and court records.
Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd, May 25, 2020. Photo Credit: Darnella Frazier via Facebook.
Floyd pleaded for his life, over and over again.
"I can't breathe," he repeated, until Chauvin killed him.
Chauvin was white; Floyd black.
Three other police officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane and Tou Thao, stood by and let Chauvin murder Floyd in front of them. They also prevented bystanders from stopping it. All four cops were fired the next day.
Chauvin was convicted in Minnesota state court of murder. He was also convicted, in federal court, of violating Floyd's civil rights. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years for both convictions, served concurrently. Kueng, Lane and Thao were all convicted in state court of aiding and abetting Chauvin's murder of Floyd and, like Chauvin, of violating Floyd's civil rights in federal court. Kueng and Lane were sentenced to 3 years in prison; Thao 3 1/2 years.
Darnella Frazier, one of the eyewitnesses to Floyd's murder, used her smartphone to capture it all on video. She used Facebook to publish it on the Internet. It detonated on social media like a nuclear bomb. Millions of Americans, from mega-cities to small towns, took the streets to let it be known that what they saw in that horrifying video was not OK in any motherfucking way, shape or form.
"BLACK LIVES MATTER!," was their rallying cry.
In the days and nights that followed Floyd’s murder, protests broke out in at least 140 other American cities. The National Guard was activated in 21 states. It was the worst civil unrest the Nation experienced in 50 years—since the massive civil rights and anti-war protests of the 1960s.
In New York, Floyd's murder echoed the killing of Eric Garner by NYPD officers in 2014. The black New Yorker’s last words while killed by a white cop were the same as Floyd's: "I can't breathe."
Funeral for Eric Garner, Brooklyn, July 23, 2014. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
Protesters in New York responded to Floyd's murder by taking to the streets en masse beginning May 28.
Barbara Ross was one of them. The long-time, bicycle-riding Environmental activist was riding along with a anti-police brutality protest march in midtown Manhattan when a female NYPD officer jumped out of an NYPD-vehicle and grabbed the handlebars of her bike. That caused the-then 57-year-old Ross to fly off her bike to the pavement. The violent impact broke Ross's foot in two places.
Instead of providing Ross with medical assistance, the unidentified NYPD officer arrested someone else—leaving Ross hobbled in the street.
The other named plaintiffs included an attorney, a non-profit worker, a software developer, two Ph.D. students, a school athletic director, a social worker, a doula and a performance artist. They were, respectively, beaten with batons, punched repeatedly, pepper-sprayed and dead-dropped face-first to the ground. Some, like Ross, were only briefly detained. Others were held for hours—with scores of other arrestees in packed police paddy wagons and cells during a pandemic, before being released.
The settlement covers these 9 named plaintiffs and anyone else arrested between May 28, 2020 and June 4, 2020 at 18 specific protest locations in New York City.
Another civil rights litigator with decades of experience—also not connected to the case—who requested anonymity told The Free Lance when it comes to the false arrest of protesters: "You're supposed to get a $1000 for every hour. So if your getting nearly $10,000 for four or five hours that's good. That's more than you're supposed to get."
On the other hand, he pointed out, if there are people who were detained longer, or suffered more serious injuries “like the bicyclist with the broken foot, that's not so fair."
Details about the injuries of the remaining plaintiffs who are not named is not in the public court record, so its impossible to determine whether the settlement fairly compensates all of the 1,380 people it covers.
Still, the experienced litigator said, one major consideration favoring the settlement is its timeliness: "One of the things you want is to resolve the case in a timely manner so you can move on. $10 grand is good for that.”
Five other large federal civil rights lawsuits related to the Floyd protests remain outstanding against the City. These include one brought by a group of journalists who were also beaten and arrested—not for protesting, but for simply reporting and photographing protests.
Another one of the outstanding cases is one brought by State Attorney General Letitia James. Her lawsuit seeks injunctive relief, including “changing policies, conducting training, and undergoing monitoring” to ensure the NYPD complies with the Constitution when policing protests and ends its current “ongoing unlawful policing practices.”
Money is important for peaceful protestors abused by police. But experienced civil rights lawyers and activists agree more is needed. Do policies change or do they set a precedent to be followed next time? Do multi-million dollar legal settlements become the cost of doing unconstitutional business?
Kuby put it this way: “Compensation is one thing. Accountably is another.”
“The problem is the culpable police officers pay no price,” he explained. “The money doesn’t come out of their pocket. It doesn’t come out of the police budget. And they all escaped prosecution for violent assault.”
For example, Terrance Monahan was the NYPD’s Chief of Department and named as a defendant in the Floyd plaintiffs’ lawsuit. He was allegedly responsible for the mass arrests of protesters.
“And Chief Monahan retired with full pension,” Kuby said.
A spokesperson for the NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.
Stefan Mooklal, Deputy Chief Of Staff for the City’s Law Department, told The Free Lance:
The City and NYPD remain committed to ensuring the public is safe and people’s right to peaceful expression is protected. The NYPD has improved numerous practices to address the challenges it faced at protests during the pandemic. This settlement was in the best interests of all parties.
NOTE: This report was updated to reflect the additional 600 individual Floyd-related lawsuits that cost the City $12 million to date, and the response of the City’s Law Department.
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