NYCLU, Legal Aid sue NYPD over aggressive tactics used against George Floyd protesters
Two civil rights organizations are suing the New York Police Department on behalf of protesters who say they were roughed up by officers because they expressed anti-police views during nightly demonstrations in the spring in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, also accuses city leadership of doing little to curtail police conduct that included trapping protesters with a technique called kettling, hitting them with pepper spray, inflicting violence and detaining them for hours. One plaintiff suffered a broken arm as a result of the police department’s conduct, the lawsuit said.
The organizations, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society, are seeking monetary damages for 11 named plaintiffs, as well as reforms such as training officers to respect the rights of protesters and swift discipline for officers who used excessive force. They are also asking a court to declare the police department’s actions unconstitutional.