00:00 This is just one of over 6,000 videos showing how New York City police mistreated protesters.
00:11 All during the Black Lives Matter rallies of 2020.
00:15 Lawyers and investigators analyzed hours of footage to expose the NYPD's use of force.
00:24 Now the city has agreed on a record sum of $13 million to settle a class action lawsuit.
00:31 Stop!
00:32 Stop!
00:33 Stop!
00:34 Let's go!
00:35 Get on the side!
00:36 Let's go!
00:37 Get on the f***ing side!
00:38 We met with one of the lead attorneys to break down what the team found.
00:44 Relax, it's over!
00:45 It's f***ing over!
00:46 The NYPD tactics were extremely similar and repeated.
00:54 And we broke it down into the lawsuit into several major groups.
00:58 One big issue is excessive force.
01:01 Sir, what's your name?
01:05 Oh!
01:06 We saw officers tackling people to the cement.
01:10 Stop resisting, I'm going to punch you in the face.
01:15 We saw officers kicking, punching, including punches to the face.
01:22 And specifically, we saw a lot of improper use of police batons.
01:28 Coward!
01:30 Stop!
01:32 Stop!
01:34 Stop!
01:36 On the West Side Highway, there was a protest of people walking on the highway.
01:41 There was no violence going on.
01:43 There was nothing like looting.
01:44 There was no police cars on fire.
01:47 Nothing like that.
01:48 Despite that, what we see is police running after protesters who are trying to leave.
01:55 Grab him!
01:56 Grab him!
01:57 I'm going to pull a stoplight.
01:58 Grab me!
01:59 Grab me!
02:00 I'm going, I'm going!
02:01 I'm leaving!
02:02 I'm leaving!
02:03 This is the NYPD's safety!
02:04 No!
02:05 No!
02:06 And hitting them with batons, including baton strikes to people's bodies, and continuing
02:12 to repeatedly hit people with batons, even after they're already on the ground.
02:22 Other videos show police cars driving into crowds of people, and this is from overhead,
02:29 so you can really just see that the cars are just driving into people standing there.
02:36 Another thing that we saw in videos was at the Barclays Center.
02:40 There's a group of people up at the police barricades.
02:44 There's something that appears to be a water bottle thrown in the direction of police,
02:48 and in response, police take out these large canisters of pepper spray that they have and
02:53 just blanket this entire crowd of people who are standing at the Barclays Center in pepper
02:58 spray.
02:59 And these are just a few examples of many, many things that we see on the video in terms
03:03 of this misconduct.
03:04 Anna, let's start locking all these f***ers up.
03:09 Another really big issue was trapping protesters.
03:12 It's something that we call "kettling."
03:13 I believe NYPD calls it "encirclement."
03:16 But it's where people will be surrounded by police officers on all sides.
03:23 There are cops on the other side!
03:26 There's a line of cops behind us pushing us.
03:29 There are cops pushing us into you!
03:31 And so they can't go anywhere.
03:32 And then police will make an order to disperse to say to leave the area, but people actually
03:36 can't leave because there will be rows of police officers on all sides.
03:40 Sometimes you'll have buildings on some sides or other things, but there's no way for people
03:44 to leave.
03:45 You can see in these examples that people really were trapped and had nowhere to go.
03:51 When you hear about people refusing an order to disperse, you can see that there was no
03:55 way to disperse.
03:56 Another big thing that we saw is after people were arrested, the NYPD used flex cuffs, which
04:03 are also just basically zip ties.
04:06 They're extremely inhumane.
04:08 And what we saw is that officers didn't have the scissors to remove cuffs.
04:11 We have video of officers removing flex cuffs with pocket knives and things like this.
04:17 And we have video and evidence and testimony about people with permanent nerve damage who
04:24 had multiple wrist surgeries because of the improper use of flex cuffs.
04:29 Another thing that's really common in these videos and that we've known has gone on for
04:33 a long time is that arrests will be made by an officer and then the officer is separated
04:40 from the person that they arrested.
04:42 And what you'll see is supervisors assigning out these arrests, saying things like, "You
04:46 take two, you take five," and actually telling these officers what they should write down.
04:52 Take these two people, say you saw them blocking traffic.
04:57 The reason it's going to be long and confusing, alright?
05:00 The phone is a box, alright?
05:02 The phone is a box, alright?
05:04 That's as per chief.
05:06 You understand?
05:08 And we actually see an instance in video where an officer is pushing back and saying, "Well,
05:13 I didn't see these types of things happen."
05:15 And he's instructed by the legal department to turn off his camera to continue the conversation
05:20 and told that this is how this is.
05:22 Do you want to turn your camera off and have a conversation or are you okay?
05:24 No, I'm okay.
05:25 This is what happens at these events.
05:27 And the issue with this is that you end up having arrest paperwork filled out by officers
05:32 who are absolutely not involved in an arrest, did not see this person pre-arrest, saying,
05:37 "Under penalties of perjury, under oath, I saw this person doing X, Y, Z," and they just didn't.
05:44 People were held for hours in vans and buses, closed windows, no ventilation, held in cells
05:52 for hours with no ventilation.
05:55 Really widespread patterns and violations of pretty much every aspect of pre-arrest,
06:06 during arrest, and post-arrest.
06:09 An experience that a lot of people had protesting was an extremely escalated NYPD, an extremely
06:19 escalated situation, including with officers in specialized units that are more meant for
06:25 terrorists than people in New York City protesting.
06:29 You'll see that there are oftentimes more police officers than protesters.
06:34 This extreme overpresence of police, it makes people afraid to be there.
06:39 Put him in cuffs!
06:41 Put him on the ground!
06:42 Don't let him go!
06:43 Put him in cuffs!
06:44 Put him in cuffs!
06:45 Let's go!
06:47 Put him in cuffs!
06:48 When you're thinking about what motivates the NYPD to settle, my hope is that this was
06:55 based on an acknowledgement, even if it isn't formal in writing we did something wrong,
07:02 that the way policing worked in summer 2020 is not okay, that the city realizes it was
07:08 not okay, and that if these cases made it to a trial, a jury of people's peers would
07:14 also agree that this was not okay.
07:17 The settlement is extremely significant.
07:20 It's going to cover about 1,380 people who were arrested at protests in the summer of 2020.
07:28 Each of the people who are arrested at these protests are going to receive $9,950, or up
07:39 to $9,950.
07:41 The general sense is that these people that are out here protesting are problems.
07:48 Don't hit me!
07:49 Don't hit me!
07:50 Don't hit me!
07:51 Don't hit me!
07:52 That at any minute they could be violent, that that's what you're watching out for.
07:56 And I think there needs to be a real fundamental switch, that the police are here to protect
08:00 these people.
08:02 They're people in New York, that is the NYPD's job to protect people.
08:07 When you think about the police actions, what you're thinking about on the other side is
08:11 justifications that the police use.
08:13 Things like violence, destruction of property, violence against persons.
08:19 It's extremely clear when you look at video related to our plaintiffs and to their testimony
08:25 under oath, that none of them were involved in anything like this.
08:30 And the same thing is true for so many other people who are in the system.
08:36 For so many people who are out, for the people in these videos, it makes it extremely clear
08:41 that these types of appeals to public safety, to violent protesters, is really not the majority
08:48 of what police were encountering and is not the situation that was going on.
08:51 And I think the video evidence is crucial in showing that.
08:55 Get him in cuffs!
08:57 Get him in cuffs!
08:58 Let's go!
08:59 What the f*ck!
09:00 This is about people in New York City being able to protest, being able to be in the streets,
09:07 being able to say what they think about the government, to be involved, to respond to
09:13 important social issues, and to do it without being afraid that they're going to be physically
09:19 hurt, that they're going to be arrested, that they're going to be detained.
09:23 That you're going to be able to be out there saying your opinion and not be retaliated against.
09:31 Move back! Move back! Move back!
09:37 Move back! Move! Move!
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