By Eric Klein and Kevin Deutsch
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Demonstrators brutalized by the NYPD in the wake of George Floyd’s killing are suing the police and Mayor Bill de Blasio, alleging violation of their First and Fourth Amendment rights, a new lawsuit states.
The federal civil rights claims, filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society, say the mayor and NYPD leadership are to blame for the “indiscriminate brutalizing of peaceful protestors” in parts of the city earlier this year, including the South Bronx.
Eleven plaintiffs are named in the suit, which comes on the heels of a report deeming the NYPD’s mass arrests of peaceful protesters in Mott Haven on June 4 a human rights violations under international law.
The crackdown, led by the department’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, Terence Monahan, was among the most aggressive police responses to protests across the United States following Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the group Human Rights Watch said in a report released last month.