NYPD Must Pay $15M for Illegally Arresting 22,000

[Brewman_Jax]

http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/02...zQUz_kr4k7

From the article:

Quote: For almost 30 years — from 1983 to 2012 — the New York Police Department went about arresting people under laws that state and federal courts had long declared unconstitutional, cuffing and booking almost 22,000 people. In 2010, federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin finally held them in contempt of court. Yesterday, she signed an order approving what is effectively their punishment: a $15 million class-action settlement that could generate individual payments of as much as $5,000.

Those arrested were forced to defend themselves in court and even served jail time for completely lawful behavior. The class action settlement also requires the city to help the courts vacate and seal all convictions stemming from the illegal arrests.

“NYPD used these void laws over the past few decades to target people based on poverty, race and sexual orientation,” said J. McGregor Smyth, an attorney from the Bronx Defenders and a lead attorney for the class. “We are happy that the city has finally taken responsibilities for these abuses, agreeing to pay meaningful damages to its victims and to stop its unconstitutional practices once and for all.”

The three unconstitutional laws under which the NYPD made the illegal arrests prohibited people from loitering to panhandle, to search for sex partners or to wait in a bus or train station. Federal and state courts struck down all three of those laws between 1983 and 1993 as violating First Amendment rights, according to The New York Times.

...

The problem is when law enforcement is regularly used for social enforcement, which, as noted in the article, is a throwback to the Jim Crow era, and left unchecked for all practical purposes. The disproportionate arrests and incarceration of POC for minor offenses show this. The sad thing is that the taxpayers have to pay for the bad policies of the police.

[jaxx]

It looks like the NYPD needs a good housecleaning, and then training using the do it-or else ending. I'm glad to see the judge's standing on the wrongs that were done. It does cost the taxpayers, but some things are worth paying for.