A doula and a former Peace Corps worker are among the 300 who will receive $21,500 each for being wrongly brutalized by police during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in The Bronx.
Samira Sierra, 31, and Amali Sierra, 25, both of The Bronx, are among the five listed plaintiffs who won a lawsuit against the New York Police Department after accusing them of surrounding them on 136th Street between 7pm and 7.30pm on June 4, 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Officers wielding batons swung at protesters and hit them with pepper spray, before restraining hundreds of the demonstrators with plastic zip ties for violating a citywide curfew, which was 8pm.
Samira, who formerly worked for the Peace Corp, told The New York Times: ‘We had every right to protest, yet, the City of New York made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are at will to be terrorized.’
Her sister, who works as a doula, told USA Today: ‘This settlement serves as testimony of the wrongdoing by the hands of the NYPD, and it is a reminder that this institution is not built to protect black and brown communities.’
The two sisters are listed as plaintiffs alongside Ricardo Nigaglioni, Alex Gutierrez, and and Charles Wood.
Samira Sierra, 31, and Amali Sierra, 25, (pictured) both of The Bronx, are among the five listed plaintiffs who won a lawsuit against the New York Police Department after accusing them of surrounding them on 136th Street between 7pm and 7.30pm on June 4, 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest
Samira (pictured), who formerly worked for the Peace Corp, told The New York Times : ‘We had every right to protest, yet, the City of New York made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are at will to be terrorized’
The city could spend between $4million to $6million on the settlement. If a judge approves the settlement filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, it would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a class action case for mass arrests.
Amali is a doula for Sacred Light Services, who is working to ’empowering black [and] brown bodies during birth and postpartum.’
She describes herself as a ‘South Bronx Afro Dominican’ and she graduated from the University of Albany with a degree in Anthropology. She also works as a Community Research Liaison at Mount Sinai in the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Her sister, Samira, worked as a former advisor at National Financial Network and was a former Health Extension Volunteer for the Peace Corps.
A report at the time said that cops heaved their bikes into protesters, while another group of officers emerged at the top of the street and started charging down the hill, pushing protesters into the advancing group of bike cops.
Samira worked as a former advisor at National Financial Network and was a former Health Extension Volunteer for the Peace Corps
Soon, the lawsuit says, ‘police indiscriminately struck protesters with batons, threw them to the ground and sprayed them with a chemical agent.’
Videos posted online also showed police pushing protesters and arresting legal observers and even medical staff in the early days of the COVID pandemic.
At one point, a video posted by Human Rights Watch showed police body slammed a woman to the ground and surrounded protesters with their batons before striking those on the outskirts.
People could be heard in the video shouting: ‘We’re getting maced,’ and telling police officers: ‘You’re going to kill someone.’
‘The violence unleashed upon us that night was intentional, unwarranted, and will be with me for the rest of my life,’ plaintiff Charles Henry Wood told USA Today. ‘What the NYPD did, aided by the political powers of New York City, was an extreme abuse of power.’
These tactics, the lawsuit argued, were approved directly by city leaders like then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Police Chief Terence Monahan who spoke out openly against the protests that caused widespread looting and destruction of property.
![Amali is a doula for Sacred Light Services, who is working to 'empowering black [and] brown bodies during birth and postpartum'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/03/02/05/68245457-11810701-image-m-33_1677734419740.jpg)
Amali is a doula for Sacred Light Services, who is working to ’empowering black [and] brown bodies during birth and postpartum.’ She describes herself as a ‘South Bronx Afro Dominican’ and she graduated from the University of Albany with a degree in Anthropology. She also works as a Community Research Liaison at Mount Sinai in the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Together, they tried to ‘suppress the protests with well-orchestrated operations corralling and violently arresting the protesters,’ the suit claims.
‘Many protesters were left injured and bleeding. Some protesters fainted, or lost consciousness and went into convulsions.’
By doing so, the lawsuit alleged, the NYPD violated the protesters’ First Amendment right to freedom of expression as well as their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection of the laws.
The plaintiffs also raised state-law claims for false arrest; assault and battery; denial of medical care; infliction of emotional distress; negligent hiring, training and supervision; and excessive detention.
A subsequent report from the Human Rights Campaign found the cops acted in a way that was ‘unprovoked and without warning, whaling their batons, beating people from car tops, shoving them down to the ground and firing pepper spray in their faces.’
But the kettling strategy was broadly defended at the time by Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who said it was needed because the protesters were defying curfews set after looters ransacked parts of Manhattan.
Shea also claimed the Bronx protest was organized by ‘outside agitators,’ and de Blasio said, ‘There was a specific pre-announced threat of violence, and then people appeared at the protest with weapons and gasoline.
Officers wielding batons swung at protesters and hit them with pepper spray, before restraining hundreds of the demonstrators with plastic zip ties for violating a citywide curfew, which was 8pm
A report at the time said that cops heaved their bikes into protesters, while another group of officers emerged at the top of the street and started charging down the hill, pushing protesters into the advancing group of bike cops
‘It is absolutely incumbent upon the police to make sure that does not proceed, because we won’t tolerate violence,’ he said.
No gasoline or weapons were ever recovered from the scene, though, and the lawsuit claims ‘no justification exists for the brutal and indiscriminate force used against Plaintiff and other peaceful protesters.’
And those who were arrested eventually got their cases dismissed.
New York City will now pay those protesters $21,500 under the proposed settlement agreement, as well as $2,500 to each class member who was given a Desk Appearance ticket and all ‘reasonable attorneys fees and costs.’
The lawyers are seeking an additional $2.5million for those fees, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
They described the agreement to the Times as ‘historic,’ noting that the highest amount paid per person in a case of mass arrests was previously in 2010, when a federal judge awarded $18,000 per person to demonstrators arrested during a 2000 protest near the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings in Washington DC as part of a $13.7million settlement.
Lawyers said that while around 330 people were eligible to receive the payments, as many as 90 have already settled with the city in separate complaints.
Around 300 will receive the settlement payment for the brutalization
The city could spend between $4million to $6million on the settlement. If a judge approves the settlement filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, it would be one of the highest ever awarded per person in a class action case for mass arrest
Others may have decided to file separate claims against he city, especially those who reported more severe injuries.
The settlement is expected to be finalized in October, according to the Gothamist, with victims likely receiving compensation before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the New York Police Department said its policies and training for large-scale demonstrations have been revised, based on internal reviews and recommendations from three outside agencies that investigated police actions following the 2020 mass protests.
‘The NYPD remains committed to continually improving its practices in every way possible,’ the department said in a statement to the Times.
It went on to say that the 2020 protests were ‘a challenging moment for the department as officers who themselves were suffering under the strains of a global pandemic did their utmost to help facilitate people’s rights to peaceful expression, all while addressing acts of lawlessness, including wide-scale rioting, mass chaos, violence and destruction.’
