New York City will pay $21,500 in compensation to each of the approximately 320 protesters who were victims of police brutality during anti-racist protests that followed the death of African-American George Floyd.

Many American cities have been rocked by episodic protests in the weeks following the untimely death of 46-year-old Floyd, in a police operation in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Several demonstrations of the “Black Lives Matter” movement have not lacked looting, but also complaints of use police violence – especially in the big city on the east coast of the USA.

In early February, a municipal commission investigating the complaints had recommended disciplinary sanctions against police officers for 146 incidents of violence, abuse of power or insults.

The settlement agreement reached by the New York city government, which must be ratified by the federal judiciary, only concerns the June 4 demonstration in the Bronx, as reported by American media.

The report of the municipal committee mentions complaints against police officers for beating protesters and indiscriminate use of tear gas.

For its part, the New York Police Department points out that the anti-racist protests of 2020 became an occasion to redesign its policy and train its members in terms of policing large-scale demonstrations.