Suit Accuses N.Y.P.D. of Continued Aggression at Protests Over Gaza

New York|Suit Accuses N.Y.P.D. of Continued Aggression at Protests Over Gaza

In 2023, the City of New York settled a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general and others over the handling of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 by agreeing that the Police Department would no longer box in and arrest demonstrators, a tactic known as “kettling.”

But according to a lawsuit filed late Monday night, the oft-criticized practice of surrounding protesters and arresting them was nonetheless used more recently against pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan as a proposed class action, said that the police had subjected protesters to false arrest and used excessive force, violating First Amendment rights and retaliating against people who had exercised those rights.

Members of the Police Department, the lawsuit said, had engaged in behavior that included “trapping protesters into spaces where they could not escape, beating protesters with batons and fists, throwing protesters to the ground, using pepper spray indiscriminately and ultimately arresting many of the protesters without lawful justification and without fair warning.”

In addition to unspecified damages, the suit asked that a judge issue orders stopping the police from “violently disrupting” protests or engaging in the behavior described in the suit.

Demonstrations over Israel and Palestine persist in New York. Thousands rallied in November before the Israeli prime minister’s speech to the United Nations and smaller groups have gathered regularly in Times Square and other locations. This month, pro-Palestine protesters occupied senators’ offices.