Philadelphia has agreed to pay $9.25 million to more than 300 people who were injured by police during the 2020 racial protests following the killing of George Floyd, as well as paying $500,000 toward a fund for counseling for victims of police violence, following a federal settlement order signed Monday.
The city has agreed, through the order signed by U.S. District Magistrate Judge David Strawbridge to make payment to settle four separate federal civil rights lawsuits, reports The Inquirer.
The city will also help pay for community-led programming. Money for the counseling and programming will be distributed to citywide grassroots organizations, which will receive grants through the Bread & Roses Fund.
The plaintiffs in the injury cases, totaling approximately 350 people, receive damages paid in varying amounts, depending on their individual cases, according to attorneys speaking at a press conference Monday in West Philadelphia.
"The pain and trauma caused by a legacy of systemic racism and police brutality against Black and Brown Philadelphians are immeasurable," Mayor Jim Kenney commented in a statement. "While this is just one step in the direction toward reconciliation, we hope this settlement will provide some healing from the harm experienced by people in their neighborhoods in West Philadelphia and during demonstrations on I-676 in 2020."
The lawsuits were focused on reaction to protests on I-676 on June 1, 2020, when protesters were teargassed, and in another incident, when the police used rubber bullets, military-style armored vehicles, pepper spray, and tear gas while trying to curb violence and looting along West Philadelphia's 52nd Street historic Black business corridor.
Plaintiffs said they suffered difficulty breathing, pain, and rashes because of the chemicals that were used, with some saying they required hospitalization and suffered mental trauma.
In the I-676 incident, protesters were teargassed after they were corralled on the Vine Street Expressway, where they had no quick way to escape.
Three people who later sued were pepper-sprayed in the face at close range by former Philadelphia SWAT officer Richard Nicoletti.
He was fired and arrested on assault charges.
The day before, in West Philadelphia, police on 52nd Street used pepper spray and rubber bullets, as well as tear gas that got into people's homes, making those inside ill before they evacuated.
"Police fired tear gas at our family’s home, leaving my 3-year-old son crying and my 6-year-old son completely terrified," Shahidah Mubarak-Hadi, one of the plaintiffs said. "The house was enclosed in gas, and we were trapped inside with nowhere to go."
She said she hid in a bathroom from the fumes and later chose to move her family out of the area.
The settlement, Mubarak-Hadi said, was important but didn't represent "full accountability" for the harm her family suffered.
The Legal Defense Fund, representing 20 plaintiffs, said the police tactics were racially discriminatory and were retaliation against Black people exercising their right to protest.
"[The police] inflicted wanton violence and devastated a predominately Black community,” said LDF deputy director of litigation Rachel Kleinman. “We believe that today’s settlement represents a long-overdue and frank recognition of the stark violence inflicted on these Philadelphia residents and protesters by police, and the continued significance of their calls, along with calls around the nation, for racial justice and police accountability."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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