The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and riots resulted in as much as $2 billion in property damage, but some of the hardest-hit cities are now paying the demonstrators.
New York City agreed to a $13.7 million settlement for a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of about 1,300 protesters arrested or harmed by police from May-June 2020, which comes to about $9,950 per demonstrator.
The agreement disclosed in a federal court filing Wednesday represents one of the largest to date by a major liberal city to resolve claims brought by 2020 protesters over allegations of law-enforcement abuse, a figure approaching an estimated $100 million.
In March, New York City agreed to pay $6 million, or $21,500 each, to about 300 protesters who were corralled by officers during the June 4 Mott Haven protest using a tactic known as kettling.
This week’s settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, does not include an admission of wrongdoing by the city or the police department.
“Although the city does not admit liability in this settlement, the size of this monetary settlement, coupled with the earlier settlement about Mott Haven, strongly suggests otherwise,” lead plaintiff Adama Sow in a statement to Gothamist. “It is also a testament to the importance of collective action to redress violations of important constitutional rights.”
The agreement excludes protesters arrested on charges such as trespassing, property destruction and assaulting an officer, but critics said the deal essentially amounts to paying people to protest.
“In other words, people are being retroactively paid to riot,” said the conservative Twitchy Team.
Other comments on social media included “Criminals getting paid. How left wing,” “Blue state and local governments compensate their left wing rioters,” and “Be right back. Gonna go riot, be arrested, get a paycheck.”
“It’s part of a larger scheme in which leftist agitators use sympathetic Democratic city bureaucracies to fund their activities,” tweeted conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza after the March settlement.
Some of the protests triggered by the May 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police began peacefully but devolved into rioting, looting and burning of businesses and even public buildings. The Minneapolis Third Precinct was torched during the unrest.
At least a dozen other major U.S. cities have also agreed to pay protesters to resolve lawsuits. In March, Philadelphia announced a $9.25 million settlement over allegations of “physical and emotional injuries” at the hands of police.
“After several years of negotiation, we are confident that this settlement will provide an opportunity for the plaintiffs to heal and move forward from the incidents on May 31, 2020 and June 1, 2020,” said Philadelphia city solicitor Diana Cortes in a March 20 statement.
Denver has agreed to pay $3.8 million to settle claims brought by protesters, which doesn’t include a $14 million jury verdict last year against the city for excessive force used against a dozen demonstrators.
In addition to the class-action lawsuits, New York City has been hit with more than 600 individual complaints stemming from police actions during the 2020 protests. About half of those have been settled for about $12 million, city comptroller Brad Lander told the AP.
Attorney Wylie Stecklow, who represented the protesters with the left-wing National Lawyers Guild, said the department has a “decades-old problem with constitutionally compliant protest policing.”
• This article was based in part on Associated Press reports.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.