For Immediate Release: 20 July, 2023
Media Contact: Noble Frank, noble@mnfreedomfund.org, (952) 353-6930
MINNEAPOLIS — After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, police in city after city responded to massive protests over police brutality - with police brutality.
Today, New York announced it will pay $13.7 Million to 1,380 George Floyd protesters whose rights were violated by unlawful police tactics during 2020. This amount is the largest ever paid to protesters.
Journalists covering the protests saw officers charge at protesters with little provocation, shoving people onto sidewalks and striking them with batons, according to the New York Times. Many of the plaintiffs were arrested and held in jail.
Accountability for police violence is great – but is this the best we can do? Just like in Minneapolis, the settlement for protesters will come from taxpayers in the city, not from police or police budgets. And nowhere in the settlement does it say anything about discipline for officers who assaulted protesters.
In fact, we know that only 12 of the 89 NYPD officers charged by a civilian review board with misconduct were ever formally disciplined.
Here in Minneapolis, we – the people who were in the streets, in police crosshairs – effectively paid for police settlements related to our own abuse.
Money is nice. But when it comes to police misconduct, it’s almost never accountability. Find out what your community is doing to create true accountability – by removing funding from the police and putting it in the hands of the community.
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