The Denver City Council voted unanimously to enter a $4.7 million settlement with over 300 people who were arrested during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots that destroyed cities across the country.
Those arrested filed a class-action lawsuit against the City of Denver after police officers arrested them on the basis of violating curfew restrictions put in place amid intense violence over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
During the riots, the situation in Denver was bad enough that then-Mayor Michael Hancock, a Democrat, imposed a curfew while Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) called in the National Guard to restore order in the city.
“Denver used its militarized police force to unlawfully arrest over 300 people for protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor,” plaintiff Claire Sannier said. “The city has agreed to pay for this one instance of violent suppression of free speech, while they continue to brutalize and imprison people every day. Our message is that Black Lives Matter is as necessary now as it was in 2020.”
The payout is one in a group of separate cases regarding law enforcement actions during the Denver riots.
Last year, a federal jury gave $14 million to 12 people who were arrested and claimed excessive force. The jury said police violated the civil rights of the 12 in question by using less-lethal means such as pepper balls and lead-filled bags as riot control measures. The city is appealing the verdict and parts of the lawsuit.
In March, the city approved a $1.6 million settlement for seven people injured by police during the riots.
The $4.7 million is a payout to the “arrest class” of the lawsuit, whom the U.S. district court defined as disobeying a lawful order (the curfew), were not charged with any other violations, and whose charges were later dismissed.
Denver denies that it violated anyone’s constitutional rights, with the city attorney’s office saying: “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.”
The office noted, however, that the settlement needs approval from the court.
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Denver is not the only city that has reached settlements stemming from the Black Lives Matter riots.
In July, New York City reached a $13 million settlement in a similar class-action lawsuit brought by around 1,300 people. Similarly, in March, Philadelphia reached a $9.25 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by over 300 people who claimed to have sustained “physical and emotional” injuries.
