An aggressive tactic deployed by the New York Police Department to trap anti-racist and anti-fascist protesters in 2020 is proving to be costly. But not for the police department — for taxpayers.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that New York City officials had reached a settlement with hundreds of protesters over the NYPD’s use of “kettling,” a maneuver in which police surround protesters before making arrests. (USA Today published a thorough explainer on the practice and its troubling history, which you can read here.)
The New York incident occurred in the Bronx on June 4, 2020, when thousands took to the streets in the city — and many more nationwide — to demonstrate against police brutality after the filmed murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Here’s a viral tweet from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who represents the Bronx, in real time:
What? No. This is dangerous.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 3, 2020
I’m heading there now. https://t.co/Dhhycbn05T
NBC News described the settlement:
In the filing, the city agreed to pay eligible class-action members $21,500 each, as well as another $2,500 to each person who received a desk appearance ticket. The two named plaintiffs in the case would receive another $21,500 “service award,” according to the proposed settlement, which must be reviewed and approved by the court before taking effect.
(FYI: A desk appearance ticket is a police-issued notice for someone to appear in court.)
After the Bronx incident, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city’s police commissioner at the time, Dermot Shea, both endorsed the kettling tactic and suggested its use was necessary against the protesters.
But in late 2020, an independent watchdog concluded that the NYPD had engaged in widespread abuse against protesters earlier that year, just as many demonstrators had claimed, and DeBlasio expressed “remorse.”
This is a season of reflection.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) December 18, 2020
I’ve read the Department of Investigation’s report on the NYPD’s handling of the protests in response to the murder of George Floyd. It’s clear that we have we to do something different in New York City.
We have to do something better. pic.twitter.com/nhY12KSNuE
The kettling incident was cited in an ongoing lawsuit that New York Attorney General Letitia James filed in 2021 against the NYPD, its leadership and de Blasio over the department’s “pattern of using excessive force and making false arrests against New Yorkers during peaceful protests” in 2020.
New York City’s current mayor, Eric Adams, is a former New York police officer who has cozied up to the NYPD and parroted its talking points. In January, the conservative Democrat publicly endorsed the Strategic Response Group, the division within the NYPD that was heavily involved in the kettling incident, as well as similar incidents in New York in 2020 and 2021.
Adams said he thinks the SRG is doing a “great job” and claimed that its work is necessary to keep guns off the streets.
Sure, that sounds all well and good. It’s the NYPD’s penchant for taking law-abiding people off the streets that’s a problem.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.