George Floyd Protesters Sue De Blasio, NYPD Over ‘Violence’

NEW YORK CITY — The clouds of pepper spray, the swings of batons and rings of unmasked cops who encircled crowds were unlawful violence against demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, a new lawsuit argues.

Eleven protesters sued Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD’s leadership, arguing they condoned and promoted police violence against demonstrators.

The protests sprang up in late May following the killing of George Floyd and were met by aggressive police tactics.

“Protesters repeatedly were met with the very pattern of police violence they marched to end,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit filed by NYCLU and the Legal Aid Society argues that the NYPD has a long history of violent and discriminatory actions against people of color.

That pattern was continued as protesters took the streets starting on May 28, the lawsuit states. Tensions fully boiled over the next day at the Barclays Center as once-peaceful protesters were met with pepper spray, batons and arrests. Demonstrators swarmed the surrounding streets, with some setting fires, while one police officer was filmed violently shoving and injuring a woman.

Clashes between police and protesters continued across the city. The lawsuit offers a day-by-day account of escalating police actions and unfounded statements by top officials, including Commissioner Dermot Shea, who wrongly claimed protesters at the Barclays Center threw bricks.

The accounts include a protest crackdown in Mott Haven that Human Rights Watch labeled a human rights violation.

All the actions, many of which were caught on video, were unconstitutional and showed a pattern of official indifference, the lawsuit argues.

“They were unprovoked and legally unjustified,” the lawsuit states. “And, they were undertaken in retaliation for the protesters’ message — calling for greater police accountability, a reallocation of funding from away from police departments and into Black and Latinx communities, the end of police brutality, and a recognition that Black Lives Matter.”

Read the full lawsuit here.