James also wants to install an external monitor to oversee the department’s policing tactics.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in Manhattan’s federal court, comes after a month-long investigation into NYPD’s actions during May to December protests over Floyd’s murder while he was in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 of May.
The investigation found that police officers allegedly used “the indiscriminate, unjustified and repeated use of batons, pepper spray, bicycles and a crowd control tactic known as ‘kettling’ against peaceful protesters,” the statement said.
“There is no doubt that the NYPD has engaged in a pattern of excessive, brutal and illegal force against peaceful protesters,” said James.
“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.”
The lawsuit indicates that the NYPD, New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea and NYPD department head Terence Monahan did not address an “old pattern of abuse” for not training, supervising and properly discipline officers to avoid and address misconduct, the statement said.
CNN contacted the NYPD, Blasio and the city to comment on the process.
The complaint includes dozens of examples of what the attorney general called flagrant use of excessive force and other improper conduct by police officers. James said that since May, her office has received more than 1,300 complaints, conducted a three-day public hearing and collected more than 300 written statements.
James said police officers hit the protesters with blunt instruments at least 50 times, spread pepper spray illegally on at least 30 occasions, and pushed or hit the protesters at least 75 times.
The attorney general described the case of a Brooklyn protester named Luke Hanna, who was hit in the head with a bat in June. James said that Hanna, who needed ten clips to close a cut on her head, was neither arrested nor charged.
In addition, the complaint states that police officers arrested or detained hundreds of protesters, legal observers and doctors without legal justification. The attorney general said 12 legal observers were detained for violating the curfew during a June protest in the Bronx, although medical and legal observers were exempt from the curfew order.
The lawsuit accused the NYPD of kettling, or of trapping protesters so they could not disperse – and then make mass arrests.
James’s office investigated incident complaints between May 28, 2020 and December 11, 2020 and found that police officers made mass arrests without probable cause and “directed and retaliated against First Amendment activity” frequently, the statement said. press.
Blasio’s mayor said last month that he fully supported the report’s conclusions and recommendations and that responsibility “starts with me and the commissioner.”
“We needed to understand what went right, what went wrong, what needs to be different, what needs to be better,” he said. “I certainly take full responsibility for the issues raised in the report and for the changes we have to make.”