The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $9.25 million to about 350 people who were injured when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up protests following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis Police custody.
The payout agreement settles a group of four lawsuits against the city, over actions Philadelphia Police officers took to disperse and arrest protesters in between May 31 and June 1, 2020, as protests and riots spread throughout the country following Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020. The group of lawsuits—Weltch, et al. v. City of Philadelphia, Hough, et al. v City of Philadelphia, Smith et al. v City of Philadelphia and Zolitor, et al. v. City of Philadelphia—described police firing tear gas canisters, flashbangs, and rubber bullets at people in West Philadelphia.
The lawsuits against the city described officers firing rubber bullets and crowd control munitions indiscriminately at “peaceable protestors and bystanders” in the 52nd and Market Street area.
Once protesters left I-676, police ordered traffic to resume and, according to the Hough complaint, Philadelphia SWAT officers “could not hide behind the pretext later used by the named Defendants to justify the violence leveled against peaceful protesters.”
Settlement Terms
The settlement agreement (pdf) for the four lawsuits states the $9.25 million payout will include a $500,000 community grant to serve the West Philadelphia Community surrounding the 52nd Street Corridor and another $75,000 to the Philadelphia-based non-profit Bread & Roses to administer the community grant.The settlement also requires the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) to cease its participation in the federal Law Enforcement Support Office/1033 program. The federal program provides local police forces with surplus military equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense, such as armored trucks and firearms.
Under the agreement, the PPD deputy commissioner also has to attend a bi-annual meeting hosted by the Southwest Inspector and open to the public. There, the deputy commissioner will have to report on use of force incidents that have occurred in the prior six-months and take questions from the public.
New York City Settlement
Philadelphia’s decision to settle these four lawsuits comes just weeks after New York City agreed to pay out between $21,500 and $24,000 to about 300 people NYPD officers detained during a clash in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx on June 4, 2020.Police officials alleged demonstrators began throwing plastic bottles with unknown liquids, and acting in a disorderly manner during the June 4, 2020, demonstration. Police then mass arrested a crowd of hundreds of people in a technique referred to as “kettling.” The police reported recovering hammers, wrenches, gas masks, and “additional items that could be used to cause injuries” among the crowd they kettled and arrested.
“The police have not provided any evidence that they found these items on protesters in Mott Haven or that these items were intended to be used for violent acts, saying only that they were “seized from individuals arrested in the Bronx last night,” the HRW report said.