A federal judge in New York City will hold a hearing Monday on whether or not to kill a recent settlement that critics say limits the police’s ability to stop protest crowds from taking over city streets.
Manhattan federal Judge Colleen McMahon will determine whether the ACLU’s settlement with the NYPD that negated certain crowd control practices, such as “kettling,” can go into effect.
“Kettling” is a tactic when police surround protesters and force them into a small area so they can be arrested en masse.
The practice was severely limited once the settlement was agreed upon in September, which stemmed from lawsuits filed in the wake of the city’s 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
Under the settlement, officers would instead have to go through a multi-step approval process before they could cuff unruly demonstrators.
A bipartisan coalition of New York City councilmembers on Wednesday urged Judge McMahon to put the kibosh on the legal agreement.
“It would make our police officers reactive rather than proactive, hesitant when they should be assertive … These new procedures would … make our city a more dangerous, and frankly, undesirable place,” Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli, Staten Island Republican, wrote in the letter obtained by the New York Post.
A total of six Republicans and three Democrats signed the letter in support of squashing the settlement.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.