Sisters Among Plaintiffs Received $21,500 EACH After Suing NYC

A doula and a former Peace Corps worker are among 300 to receive $21,500 each for being mistreated by police during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in the Bronx.

Samira Sierra, 31, and Amali Sierra, 25, both from the Bronx, are among five listed plaintiffs who won a lawsuit against the New York Police Department after accusing them of surrounding them on 136th Street between 7: 00 pm and 7:30 pm on June 4. 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest.

Baton-wielding officers beat protesters and pepper-sprayed them, before restraining hundreds of protesters with zip ties for violating the citywide curfew, which was at 8 p.m.

Samira, who previously worked for Peace Corp, said The New York Times: ‘We had every right to protest, yet New York City made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are willing to be terrorized.’

Her sister, who works as a doula, told her USA Today: ‘This agreement serves as a testament to the wrongdoing committed by the NYPD, and is a reminder that this institution is not built to protect black and brown communities.’

The two sisters are listed as plaintiffs along with Ricardo Nigaglioni, Alex Gutierrez and Charles Wood.

Samira (pictured), who previously worked for Peace Corp, told The New York Times: “We had every right to protest, yet New York City made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx is willing to be terrified’

The city could spend between $4 million and $6 million on the deal. If a judge approves the settlement filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, it would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a mass arrest class action case.

Amali is a doula with Sacred Light Services, which is working to ’empower black people [and] brown bodies during childbirth and postpartum.’

She describes herself as an ‘Afro-Dominican from the South Bronx’ and graduated from the University at Albany with a degree in Anthropology. She also works as the Community Research Liaison at Mount Sinai’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

His sister, Samira, worked as a former adviser at the National Financial Network and was a former health outreach volunteer for the Peace Corps.

A report at the time said that the policemen threw their bicycles at the protesters, while another group of officers emerged at the top of the street and began charging down the hill, pushing the protesters towards the advancing group of policemen on bicycles. .

Samira worked as a former adviser at the National Financial Network and was a former health outreach volunteer for the Peace Corps.

Amali is a doula with Sacred Light Services, which is working to ’empower black people [and] brown bodies during childbirth and postpartum.’ She describes herself as an ‘Afro-Dominican from the South Bronx’ and she graduated from the University at Albany with a degree in Anthropology. She also works as the Community Research Liaison at Mount Sinai’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Soon, the lawsuit says, “police indiscriminately beat protesters with batons, threw them to the ground, and sprayed them with a chemical agent.”

Videos posted online also showed police pushing protesters and arresting legal observers and even medical personnel in the early days of the COVID pandemic.

At one point, a video released by Human Rights Watch showed police knocking a woman to the ground and surrounding the protesters with their batons before beating those outside.

People in the video could be heard yelling, ‘They’re killing us,’ and telling police officers, ‘They’re going to kill someone.’

“The violence unleashed on us that night was intentional, unjustified and will be with me for the rest of my life,” plaintiff Charles Henry Wood told USA Today. “What the NYPD did, with the help of the political powers in New York City, was an extreme abuse of power.”

These tactics, the lawsuit argued, were directly endorsed by city leaders such as then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Police Chief Terence Monahan, who spoke out against protests that caused widespread looting and destruction of property.

Together, they attempted to “suppress the protests with well-orchestrated operations to round up and violently arrest protesters,” the lawsuit states.

‘Many protesters were left injured and bleeding. Some protesters passed out or lost consciousness and went into seizures.

In doing so, the lawsuit alleges, the NYPD violated the protesters’ First Amendment right to free speech, as well as their Fourteenth Amendment rights to the equal protection of the laws.

The plaintiffs also filed state law claims for false arrest; injuries; denial of medical care; infliction of emotional distress; negligent hiring, training and supervision; and excessive detention.

A later report from the Human Rights Campaign found that the police officers acted in a manner that was “without provocation and without warning, pointing their batons, hitting people from the roofs of cars, pushing them to the ground and firing pepper spray at them.” in the face”.

But the kettling strategy was widely advocated at the time by Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who said it was necessary because protesters were defying curfews set after looters looted parts of Manhattan.

Shea also claimed that the Bronx protest was organized by ‘outside agitators’, with De Blasio saying: ‘There was a specific threat of violence previously announced, and then people showed up at the protest with guns and gasoline.

Baton-wielding officers beat protesters and pepper-sprayed them, before restraining hundreds of protesters with zip ties for violating the citywide curfew, which was at 8 p.m.

A report at the time said that the policemen threw their bicycles at the protesters, while another group of officers emerged at the top of the street and began charging down the hill, pushing the protesters towards the advancing group of policemen on bicycles. .

“It is absolutely the responsibility of the police to make sure that does not happen, because we will not tolerate violence,” he said.

However, no gasoline or weapons were ever recovered from the scene, and the lawsuit claims that “there is no justification for the brutal and indiscriminate force used against plaintiff and other peaceful protesters.”

And those who were arrested eventually got their cases dismissed.

New York City will now pay those protesters $21,500 under the proposed settlement, as well as $2,500 to each class member who was issued a ticket to appear at the desk and all reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. ‘.

The lawyers are seeking an additional $2.5 million for those fees, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.

They described the settlement to the Times as “historic,” noting that the highest amount ever paid per person in a mass arrest case was earlier in 2010, when a federal judge awarded $18,000 per person to protesters arrested during a 2000 protest near the World Bank. and International Monetary Fund buildings in Washington DC as part of a $13.7 million deal.

The attorneys said that while about 330 people were eligible to receive the payments, as many as 90 have already settled with the city in separate complaints.

Around 300 will receive the settlement payment for the brutalization

The city could spend between $4 million and $6 million on the deal. If a judge approves the settlement filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, it would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a mass arrest class action case.

Others may have decided to file separate lawsuits against the city, especially those who reported more serious injuries.

The settlement is expected to be finalized in October, according to Gothamist, with victims likely to receive compensation before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the New York Police Department said its policies and training for large-scale demonstrations have been revised, based on internal reviews and recommendations from three outside agencies that investigated police actions following the 2020 mass protests.

“The NYPD remains committed to continually improving its practices in every way possible,” the department said in a statement to the Times.

He went on to say that the 2020 protests were “a challenging time for the department, as officers suffering under the stresses of a global pandemic did everything possible to help facilitate people’s rights to peaceful expression, while also they addressed acts of lawlessness, including large-scale riots, mass chaos, violence and destruction.’