NEW YORK, New York – Two Caribbean American New York State legislators have filed a lawsuit against the New York Police Department (NYPD) for allegedly violating their free-speech rights.
The lawsuit, filed by Assemblywoman Diana C. Richardson and Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie, also names the City of New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison, and certain known and unknown NYPD officers as defendants.
The lawsuit aims to hold the police, city officials and the City of New York accountable for violating the legislators’ rights, and seeks changes to the NYPD’s policies in policing protests, especially those that implicate issues of race and police brutality.
“On May 29, 2020, I stood in the streets of Brooklyn with my constituents to voice outrage after the murder of George Floyd added yet another tragic chapter to the long history of police brutality against Black citizens.
“My community and I were in grief and pain, and I sought to add my voice to the chorus of protest, standing in solidarity as the community called for police accountability for violence against Black citizens,” said Myrie, who represents the 20th Senate District in Central Brooklyn, in a joint statement.
“At the same time, I felt I had an obligation to try to mediate and keep the peace between citizens and the police, given the large police presence and the intensity of the community’s pain,” added Myrie whose grandmother hailed from Jamaica. “Yet, instead of being given a chance to mediate as peacemaker, I, too, became a victim of violence by the police department.”
Richardson, who represents the 43rd Assembly District, also in Central Brooklyn, said “like so many of my fellow New Yorkers, I took part in a peaceful protest against the killing of George Floyd and the lack of accountability of police departments across this country for their use of excessive force, particularly against Black and brown Americans.
“As an elected official with close, positive relationships with local police officers, I fully expected those tasked with keeping the peace on May 29 to observe, intervene only if necessary and generally protect the rights of New Yorkers to make their voices heard,” said Richardson, the daughter of Aruban and St. Martin immigrants. “Instead, I and many of my constituents were beaten with bicycles and pepper sprayed.
“I will not allow yet another incidence of excessive force against Black Americans by police officers to be swept under the rug. I have the ability and the obligation to hold the police who violated my constitutional rights accountable.”
To accomplish this goal of accountability, the lawsuit requests, among other things, a court order requiring the NYPD to reform its policies and practices to prevent the use of tactics that lead to excessive force, like “kittling” and hitting protesters with bikes, and invade citizens’ constitutional right to free speech, including by protesting police brutality and racial injustice.
“With this lawsuit, we will shine a light on the injustices Black Americans have suffered at the hands of police for far too long,” Richardson said. “We seek accountability; we seek change; we seek justice. And we will keep fighting until we get it.”
Myrie said that he and Richardson filed the lawsuit with two aims in mind, namely “to vindicate the personal violation of our rights as citizens who were abused by the police; and as elected representatives of the community, who seek to ensure the police department is held accountable by making real policy change to ensure citizens’ constitutional rights are not disregarded this way in the future.”
In announcing the lawsuit, the law firm of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, which is representing Myrie and Richardson, said in a separate statement that “the lawsuit seeks to vindicate our clients’ rights and the rights of their constituents to peacefully stand up for racial justice and speak out against police brutality without the threat or occurrence of police violence”.
The lawsuit seeks damages for the injuries suffered by Myrie and Richardson, as well as injunctive relief to, among other things, “end the increasingly common practices of ‘kettling’ – i.e., corralling protestors in confined areas to trap and arrest them en masse – and using bicycles as weapons to bludgeon and batter peaceful protestors.”
