New York Supreme Court Justice James Burke said on June 4 that the New York Police Department can hold detained protesters for more than 24 hours.
New York courts earlier held that people should generally be arraigned within 24 hours. Burke said his decision comes because the city is facing a double crisis.
“There is a crisis within a crisis,” said Burke in a hearing conducted on Skype. By “crisis within a crisis” he meant that the pandemic and the protests are happening at the same time and the police and the prosecutors require more time to process the arrests.

A New York State Court of Appeals’ decision in 1991 said that detainees cannot be held without arraignment for more than 24 hours unless an “acceptable explanation” is provided for the delay. Burke quoted this appeals decision in Roundtree V. New York and said the NYPD has provided acceptable reasons for keeping the protesters detained.
New York’s Legal Aid Society filed a notice of appeal on behalf of New Yorkers against the NYPD’s detention of protesters for more than 24 hours which it said is against the city’s 24-hour arrest-to-arraignment requirement.
Critics have said that keeping protesters detained longer could turn into a public health crisis.
“The police are unnecessarily arresting these individuals and putting them in jail. They are creating the crisis this court is talking about,“ Amber Khan, director of the Health Justice Program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest told the Daily News. He added that Burke’s decision would have ”dire consequences.”
“The individuals who are detained may or may not contract COVID-19, and then they reenter the community, to their own families, to where they live, to whomever they’re around, and potentially spread it. We won’t even know that consequence for weeks down the road,” said Khan.