LETTER FROM NEW YORK
Front, profile, and $17.5 million for mugshots: New York City has agreed to pay this staggering sum to be shared among thousands of people arrested by New York police who had to remove their religious head coverings to be photographed by the police. The agreement, which still has to be approved by a judge, is the consequence of a class-action suit brought in 2018 by two Muslim women, Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, who said they were humiliated when police officers demanded they remove their hijabs.
The two plaintiffs' cases were originally separate. In January 2017, Clark's ex-husband complained that she had violated a protective order. The New Jersey resident was arrested and she was brought to the New York police headquarters, where an officer took her photo. "Like many Muslim women whose religious beliefs dictate that they wear a hijab, Ms. Clark felt exposed and violated without hers – as if she were naked in a public space," the complaint stated. According to court records, Clark wept and begged to put her hijab back on while police took her photo. "The officer ignored Ms. Clark, stored the photograph in an online database and in Ms. Clark's paper file, and showed it to numerous male officers," the documents showed.
In August 2017, Aziz, a resident of Brooklyn, was arrested after her sister-in-law obtained a protective order against her. While in custody, Aziz begged police officers to allow her to push back her hijab only slightly to expose her hairline and ears for the arrest photo. "Frantic, weeping and bareheaded in a hallway full of men who do not belong to her immediate family, Ms. Aziz felt broken," the complaint stated.
The two women won compensation under the First Amendment of the US Constitution on freedom of speech and religion. "I'm so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers," Clark said in a statement on Friday, April 5, after the agreement was announced.
The financial settlement, just over $13 million once administrative costs and legal fees are deducted, will be divided among the approximately 3,600 eligible individuals. "If you were forced to remove a religious head covering for a photograph while in custody of the New York City Police Department from March 16, 2014 to August 23, 2021, you are eligible for a payment between $7,824 and $13,125," the attorneys for Clark and Aziz stated on their website.
In response to the class-action suit, the New York City police changed their policy in 2020 and decided to allow religious people to be photographed wearing head coverings as long as their faces are not obstructed. The change concerns not only hijabs, but also other head coverings such as yarmulkes, Orthodox Jewish wigs and Sikh turbans.
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