New York City has agreed to pay $21,500 each to 300 protesters who were penned by a police tactic known as ‘kettling,’ and then pepper-sprayed and clubbed, during George Floyd protests in 2020, Raw Story reported on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (read story here).
The protesters sued, alleging the cops “penned in the peaceful protesters and prevented them from leaving,” Raw Story said. The settlement amounts to roughly $6.45 million, not including legal expenses.
It isn’t the largest payout resulting from violent police responses to peaceful George Floyd protests. In 2022, a jury returned a $14 million verdict against Denver police for injuring peaceful protesters there (see story here).
The guilty police officers and their unions don’t pay these judgments, of course; the cities’ insurers, and ultimately taxpayers, do.
The “kettling” tactic was used by police in numerous cities during the George Floyd protests (see story here). The tactic consists of surrounding a crowd, cutting off escape routes, and then unleashing violence on the crowd. A protester in Charlotte, North Carolina, said, “It was terrifying. They just trap you in, and you are basically at their disposal.”
Kettling was originally a military tactic developed for battlefield use. Police began adopting the tactic in the 1980s, and justify it in crowd control terms. But kettling doesn’t discriminate between violent and peaceful crowd members, participants and bystanders, or young and old.
Passersby, tourists, elderly people, disabled people in wheelchairs, pregnant women, and children have been caught in “kettles.” And it can be very dangerous, because it induces panic in the trapped crowds.
After the Charlotte incident, that city’s police department banned the practice, and other cities may follow suit, but don’t be surprised if police keep doing it anyway. Cops don’t care what their misconduct costs taxpayers. It’s not coming out of their pockets.
Photo below: The New York City police “kettle” in June 2020
