New York has agreed to pay $13 million to more than 1,000 Americans who were arrested in the summer of 2020 during Black Lives Matter demonstrations. This is the largest amount in the history of the United States, paid under such an agreement with protesters, writes dpa with reference to the documents transferred on Wednesday evening to the federal court in Manhattan.

Each of the approximately 1,380 people who initiated the class action is to receive a minimum of $9,950 plus attorneys’ fees, estimated to be in the millions of dollars. The deal still has to be approved by U.S. District Judge Colin McMahon.

The 1,380 people who were arrested during protests in Manhattan and Brooklyn between May 28 and June 4, 2020, filed a lawsuit in early 2021 with the help of lawyers from the nonprofit National Lawyers Guild.

In 2020, New Yorkers joined millions of protesters who demonstrated for weeks against police brutality and racism following the death of African-American George Floyd, who was strangled during an arrest by white police officer Derek Chauvin between the time he was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for murder and imprisonment.

NYPD (New York Police Department) officers have been accused of using excessive force and resorting to violent measures to control demonstrators, including in a “kettle”, effectively surrounding protesters, preventing them from dispersing. One of the thousands of videos reviewed by lawyers shows police officers throwing bicycles at protesters in Brooklyn.

New York City has been the subject of at least seven class-action lawsuits following protests in the summer of 2020. In two of those cases, the city agreed to pay a total of $6 million, $21,500 each to more than 300 people arrested during a Bronx protest that footage shows police officers beating handcuffed protesters with batons and spraying them with pepper spray in their faces. (Source: Agerpres)