The Denver City Council unanimously accepted a $4.7 million settlement for over 300 Black Lives Matter protestors arrested by Denver Police during the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020.
The settlement was part of the city council’s consent agenda and addresses persons who participated in protests following George Floyd’s death. It comes on the heels of a $14 million payoff to 12 injured demonstrators last year, which is presently being appealed in federal court, and a separate $1.6 million settlement to seven injured protesters earlier this year.
A federal jury awarded $14 million in compensatory and punitive damages to 12 Black Lives Matter protestors who were hurt by police during a riot in 2020 following the death of George Floyd.
The jury determined that the Denver Police Department violated the demonstrators’ constitutional rights by using less-lethal weapons to break up the riot.
“The violence and destruction that occurred around the community required intervention,” one of Denver’s lawyers, Lindsay Jordan, told the jurors.
“The jurors found Christian violated Epps’ Fourth Amendment rights and awarded her $250,000 in punitive damages. They denied her First Amendment claims against him,” the Denver Gazette reports. “At trial the two sides disputed whether the pepper ball fired by Christian actually hit Epps. She said after the verdict came down it had felt ‘disorienting’ for the city to challenge her account of what she experienced.”
Attorneys for the protesters claimed their clients never assaulted officers or destroyed property.
The payouts are as follows:
- Claire Sannier: $1 million
- Stanford Smith: $1 million
- Zachary Packard: $3 million
- Sara Fitouri: $1 million
- Maya Rothlein: $1 million
- Amanda Blasingame: $1 million
- Joe Deras: $1 million
- Elle Taylor: $1 million
- Ashlee Wedgeworth, $750,00
- Jackie Parkins: $1 million
- Elisabeth Epps: 1 million in compensatory damages, $250,000 in punitive damages
The Denver City Council approved the $4.7 million settlement last week. The complaint filed against the city claimed that the curfew was selectively enforced on Black Lives Matter protesters, infringing on their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Elizabeth Wang, the lead attorney for the protesters, emphasized the importance of the settlement in upholding the First Amendment.
She stated, “Over 300 people were arrested for the simple act of protesting. The U.S. Constitution does not allow police to clear the streets of protesters simply because they do not agree with their message.”
According to Denver Gazette, “Federal district court Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote in a 2021 order that attorneys estimated nearly 300 people fell into a category of protesters arrested only for violating the emergency curfew or failing to obey a lawful order, and whose cases were later dropped.”
In a statement to CBS News Colorado, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department denies that the department violated anyone’s constitutional rights.
“The City and County of Denver has reached a settlement in a federal class action lawsuit filed on behalf of over 300 individuals who were arrested for violating the curfew order during protests in May 2020,” the City Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “The class plaintiffs alleged enforcement of the curfew order violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Denver denies its curfew order was unconstitutionally enforced. Under the proposed settlement, the total amount for class members is expected to be between approximately $3.0 to 3.5 million with the remaining approximately $1.22 to 1.72 million allocated to attorneys’ fees, costs, and settlement administration expenses. The settlement must be approved by the District Court.”
Founder & CEO of TPUSA, Charlie Kirk, weighed in on this new development.
“The city of Denver just agreed to pay out $4.7 million to 300 BLM rioters arrested in 2020. Philadelphia is paying out more than $9 million. New York is doling out $13 million. Overall, more than $80 million is going to be paid out across 20+ U.S. cities,” he wrote.
“BLM burned our police stations and looted our stores. Now, they’re looting the public coffers. When you reward and subsidize criminality, you’ll get even more of it. Who could have predicted that Democrat cities would become crime-infested, drug-riddled hellscapes? And what do you think will happen the next time the Democrat base gets the signal to riot?” he added.
Last July, New York City officials decided to compensate violent “2020 Summer of Love” demonstrators and rioters $13 million.
Over 1,300 protesters are eligible for nearly $9,950 in restitution for police conduct during the riots that followed the death of George Floyd in Minnesota that year, which included violence, looting, arson, and property destruction.
This does not include the over $12 million granted in individual lawsuits against the city to approximately 300 demonstrators.
In March, Philadelphia reached a $9.25 million settlement with over 200 persons injured in May 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd.
