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Philadelphia to Pay $9.25 Million to Settle Suit by George Floyd Protesters

Philadelphia has agreed to pay $9.25 million to more than 300 people who said they were injured in the police response to racial justice protests that erupted after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the city said on Monday.

The city announced the settlement with the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit who said they sustained “physical and emotional injuries” in the city’s response to civil unrest and demonstrations on May 31 and June 1, 2020, after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, city officials said.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit included residents of West Philadelphia and people who participated in demonstrations on Interstate 676 in which they called for police accountability.

Video taken at the time showed officers using tear gas and pepper spray on protesters who had gathered minutes earlier. Plaintiffs also said that officers used rubber bullets.

Under the agreement, a total of $9.25 million will be distributed among 343 plaintiffs, according to the city.

In addition, a grant of $500,000 to $600,000 to the Bread & Roses Community Fund will fund free mental health counseling for West Philadelphia residents. The group works toward racial, social and economic justice in the city.

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“The pain and trauma caused by a legacy of systemic racism and police brutality against Black and Brown Philadelphians is immeasurable,” Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia said in a statement about the settlement.

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The settlement was reached weeks after New York City agreed to pay $4 million to $6 million to protesters from a George Floyd protest that took place in the Bronx around the same time. New York City agreed to pay $21,500 to each of hundreds of demonstrators who were penned in by the police, then charged at or beaten with batons, according to the settlement.

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