Headline Roundup • March 3rd, 2023
NYC Settles Mistreatment Suit Against NYPD For George Floyd Protests
Summary from the AllSides News Team
New York City is set to pay $21,500 to 320 people involved in protests that took place in the Bronx in the summer of 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Details: A class-action lawsuit argued New York City Police mistreated demonstrators by using a police tactic known as “kettling.” The lawsuit states that officers confined protesters until the city’s 8:00 P.M. curfew took effect, at which point they arrested the demonstrators for violating the curfew, with officers reportedly beating and pepper spraying some of the demonstrators. The lawsuit still needs to be approved by a federal judge. Should it go through, ABC News reports it would be the “highest per-person settlement award in a mass arrest class action lawsuit,” totaling nearly $7 million.
Key Quotes: One of the protesters involved in the lawsuit is quoted by ABC News stating, “the violence unleashed upon us that night was intentional, unwarranted, and will be with me for the rest of my life. What the NYPD did, aided by the political powers of New York City, was an extreme abuse of power,” A statement from the NYPD said that “much of the NYPD's policies and training for policing large-scale demonstrations have been re-envisioned based on the findings of the department's own, self-initiated analyses and on the recommendations from three outside agencies who carefully investigated that period.”
How The Media Covered It: The verdict was covered evenly across the spectrum.
Featured Coverage of this Story
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images, FILE
New York City and the New York Police Department have agreed to collectively pay millions to protesters who were arrested, detained or subjected to violence during a George Floyd demonstration in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx in June 2020, according to a court filing.
The settlement agreement called for more than 300 protesters confined that day using a police tactic they referred to as "kettling" to each receive $21,500, which is believed to be the highest per-person settlement award in a mass arrest class action lawsuit. The total...
Stephen Yang
The city has agreed to shell out $21,500 to each of the more than 300 protesters who were confined and some beaten or pepper-sprayed by NYPD officers in The Bronx during the nationwide 2020 George Floyd demonstrations.
The proposed settlement — which will have to be signed off on by a federal judge — was published in a Manhattan federal class-action suit filed by the protesters who were “kettled” by cops at the protest in Mott Haven on June 4, 2020.
Protesters who were unlawfully charged with a crime after...
REUTERS/Mike Segar
New York City has agreed to pay millions of dollars to demonstrators who sued the police department, saying they had been mistreated during a June 2020 racial justice protest that followed the killing of George Floyd.
The proposed settlement would award $21,500 to each of the more than 300 people arrested in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the city's Bronx borough if it is approved by a federal judge.
The June 4 demonstration was among numerous protests in New York City and around the country after the killing of Floyd,...
AllSides Picks
Red Blue Translator
Civil Rights
Red Blue Translator
Black Lives Matter
Headline Roundup
USAID Report Claims Over 100 UNRWA Employees Participated in October 7 Attacks
August 28th, 2026
Headline Roundup
Alleged Grand Jury Report Accuses DeSantis Administration of Misappropriating $10 Million
August 28th, 2026
