January 15 According to a report by Chinese website, the Attorney General of New York (LETITIA James) filed a lawsuit on the 14th, accusing the New York Police Department (NYPD) of violating civil rights for many years, and she also sought to appoint a federal inspector.
James said that the “landmark lawsuit” filed in the Southern District Court of New York, which together listed New York Mayor de Blasio, Chief of Police Shea and Chief Superintendent Monaghan as defendants, outlined the NYPD’s indiscriminate use of force and illegal detention over the years.
The latest series of violations appeared in the summer of 2020 due to The death of Freud, an African-American man, triggered an anti-racial injustice protest.
Entrusted by New York Governor Cuomo, James evaluated the NYPD’s response during the protests caused by Freud’s death.
She said the civil investigation found “serious abuse of police power, excessive use of force, and problems that the leadership cannot and is unwilling to stop”.
The lawsuit claims that from May 28, 2020 to December 11, 2020, police officers at all levels “used batons, fists, pepper sprays and other forces” against protesters “many times and without justification”.
In October 2020, the Civil Liberties Union and Legal Aid Association of New York sued New York City on behalf of protesters who claimed that they had been attacked and abused by the police and that their civil rights had been violated.
Two months later, the New York City Bureau of Investigation found that the NYPD had excessive use of force in protests throughout the city.
De Blasio said in December 2020 that he agreed with the report’s findings, saying that the report “is very clear that we must take different measures and we must do better”.
“We have one common goal—to continue to drive major police changes,” de Blasio said in response to the latest lawsuit.
At the press conference announcing the lawsuit, many people talked about their experience of being treated unfairly by the police through video.
“While knowing and publicly acknowing and publicly a violation of the rights of New Yorkers, the NYPD and its senior leadership have failed to prevent police officers from doing so through proper training, supervision and disciplinary practices that this pattern of abuse of force is long insoluble,” James said.
