New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference announcing a process to dissolve the NRA on August 6, 2020 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the New York Police Department and New York City on Thursday, alleging that authorities used excessive force during the summer’s racial justice protests.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, asks the NYPD to carry out systemic reforms to be overseen by an independent monitor. It also asks a court to declare police actions illegal.
The 69-page lawsuit includes allegations of dozens of violations of excessive force, accompanied by graphic photos of individuals who were beaten and in some cases illegally detained by the police.
“There is no doubt that the NYPD has been involved in a pattern of excessive, brutal and illegal force against peaceful protesters,” said James in a statement accompanying the process.
“In the past few months, the NYPD has repeatedly and flagrantly violated the rights of New Yorkers, inflicting significant physical and psychological damage and generating great distrust in law enforcement,” said James. “With today’s lawsuit, that long-standing pattern of brutal and illegal force ends. No one is above the law – not even the individuals accused of enforcing it.”
New York police officers watch protesters in Times Square on June 1, 2020, during a “Black Lives Matter” protest.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP via Getty Images
The lawsuit comes months after thousands of people gathered in New York to protest police violence following the murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Floyd and Taylor, both black, were killed by the police and became symbols of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Governor Andrew Cuomo called for a civil investigation into police misconduct after videos circulated showing violent clashes between seemingly peaceful protesters and law enforcement officials. The investigation eventually found 30 incidents in which the police allegedly used pepper spray illegally and 75 in which it allegedly used unreasonable force.
“When the Defendants, starting in May 2020, chose to send thousands of inadequately trained police officers to large-scale protests that defied police conduct and authority, the results were predictable: mass arrests, excessive force and other illegal efforts to crack down the protests “, process reads.
“Although many injured protesters have sought monetary relief to remedy their injuries, this process seeks only declaratory and injunction measures – relief that is critical to ending the illegal practices of decades of policing protests,” says the document.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement that he met with the attorney general on Wednesday, “and we have a common goal: to continue to push for major police reforms.”
“I couldn’t agree more that there are urgent reforms that must – and will be – made this year, including the major disciplinary reforms announced with my pledge to the Obama Foundation, all 30 recommendations in the DOI and Legal Department reports and more,” said de Blasio.
“This work is fundamental and it is happening now. A lawsuit and bureaucracy plus a federal monitor will not speed up this work. There is no time to lose and we will continue to move forward, ”he added.
A protester gestures to a NYPD policeman during a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration on May 28, 2020 in New York City, in outrage over the death of a black man in Minnesota, who died after a white policeman knelt in your neck for several minutes.
Johannes Eisele | AFP | Getty Images
A controversial practice in which the process focuses is known as “kettling”, or cornering protesters and not allowing them to disperse, sometimes for hours. The suit claims that demonstrators subject to the practice were illegally detained.
It also accuses the police of routinely arresting essential workers for violating the curfew, despite being exempt from it.
The lawsuit says that, in one instance, the police arrested an overnight security guard, Zuleyka Morales, who wore a badge around her neck that identified her as an essential worker. According to the complaint, Morales decided to file a protest en route to work after realizing that the police were using significant force.
“As soon as she hit the record button, Morales felt that someone was coming up behind her and attacked her, throwing her on the floor. While on the floor, she saw a New York Police officer with three stripes on his sleeve, indicating the rank. sergeant, trying to contain it physically “, says the costume.
The lawsuit says the policeman and at least two others “hit their heads on the sidewalk and on the street several times” while she tried to explain that she was an essential worker.
“While she was on the floor, at least one police officer obstructed her breathing by kneeling on her back and neck, so she said, ‘I can’t breathe.’ Morales repeated this several times and feared for his life “, says the process.
Morales was immobilized with ties and arrested. Hours later, she lost consciousness and was transported to a hospital diagnosed with a bruise on her head and bruises. She was returned to police custody and released the next morning with a criminal summons for violating the curfew, according to the lawsuit.
Morales is one of more than a dozen individuals named in the process as victims of alleged excessive force or illegal detention. The lawsuit says that violations of excessive force constituted the majority of 1,646 allegations of police misconduct reported between May 28 and June 20.
“Defendants knew or should have known that NYPD officers had the practice of using excessive unconstitutional force to control and disperse protests, but they did not impose their policies to end this practice,” says the lawsuit. “According to the information and belief, the defendants did not discipline the vast majority of NYPD officers who used excessive force against protesters.”
The action comes as Democrats compare the aggressive police tactics used during racial justice protests to failed efforts to prevent a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump from ravaging the Capitol last week. The riot killed at least five people, including a police officer from the United States Capitol.
“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, there wouldn’t have been – they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently from the crowd of thugs who invaded the Capitol,” President-elect Joe Biden said this week passed in a speech after the riots in DC.
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