The Legal Aid Society and the New York Civil Liberties Union applauded a lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James – which joins existing litigation brought this past October by Legal Aid and NYCLU – that seeks to address the New York Police Department’s conduct during the demonstrations this past summer protesting the killing of George Floyd and police violence, as reported by the Associated Press.

This past October, Legal Aid and NYCLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of 11 plaintiffs against Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, Chief of Department Terence Monahan, the City of New York, and several individual police officers for their roles in the indiscriminate brutalizing of peaceful protestors during the protests following the police killing of George Floyd.

The suit addresses the first month of protests between May 28 and June 28, where swarming officers used batons, pepper spray, and other aggressive techniques to retaliate against New Yorkers for showing their support of Black lives and demanding an end to police violence.

The Lawsuit highlights the widespread and widely-publicized instances of indiscriminate force by police officers during the protests in late May and June following the police killing of George Floyd, and claims the mayor and city instituted a de facto policy allowing individual officers to violently target protesters by repeatedly approving forceful deployments and refusing discipline or repercussions for blatant officer violence.

This matter is currently pending before United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“We hope this will be the beginning of a serious reckoning over police violence and militarized use of force against protesters, especially people of color, and a check on the impunity many officers have come to see as their right,” reads a joint statement from The Legal Aid Society and the New York Civil Liberties Union.