In Woke Democrat-Run Cities, Black Lives Matter Rioters Learn That Lawlessness Pays
“As I see this now, when all of these cases are concluded, it will probably be a record amount, total, paid out across the country.”
![](https://c3.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CNN-describes-Kenosha-riots-as-_Fiery-but-peaceful-protests_-as-reporter-stands-in-front-of-building-engulfed-in-flames.png)
As if it weren’t bad enough that we have repeatedly been gaslit by agenda-driven media outlets who “report” that the Antifa/BLM-led riots they’re covering have been “mostly peaceful” even as cities are on fire in the background, a pattern has emerged in these Democrat-run cities where the so-called protesters are filing lawsuits and winning nice payouts as a result.
For instance, in Los Angeles last week, a jury awarded one such agitator $3.75 million in a lawsuit alleging that the man’s uncle ordered his fellow officers to shoot him with foam rounds because he wouldn’t leave the area as instructed. The man, Asim Jamal Shakir Jr., claimed he wasn’t aware of any dispersal order because he arrived late, and that the foam projectiles injured him to the point he could no longer do the things he loves most, like operate a camera:
Before long, Shakir spotted his uncle in amongst the group of LAPD officers in front of him and confronted him over the fact he was on the side of law enforcement and not those protesting the killing of George Floyd.
“Our ancestors are turning over in their grave right now!” Shakir shouted, at which point his uncle said to his colleagues, “That’s my nephew,” and “I’m going to be on his ass if he doesn’t get out of here.”
Shakir alleged that his uncle then motioned towards him and told his fellow officers to open fire with the hard-foam bullets. He was struck once in the hand, knocking his phone onto the ground. As he bent over to pick it up, he was struck a second time.
According to the L.A. Times, this isn’t the first BLM settlement the city has faced, and there are other BLM lawsuits against the city pending:
The city is still facing a large class-action lawsuit by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and other groups over its handling of the 2020 protests. Several other suits have already been settled, including one by a protester who was awarded $1.25 million for being shot with a projectile while he was backing away with his hands above his head.
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles City Council approved an $860,000 settlement to Deon Jones, a protester who was shot with a projectile and badly wounded by a city police officer during another Floyd-related protest. Jones claimed his constitutional rights were violated by LAPD Officer Peter Bueno when the officer shot him.
In Denver, the City Council just approved a multi-million dollar settlement with left-wing protesters that stemmed from a lawsuit alleging that the Denver PD violated their 1st and 14th Amendment rights by arresting them after they failed to abide by an emergency curfew:
Hundreds of protesters cited for curfew violations during the 2020 racial justice demonstrations will receive portions of a $4.7 million settlement approved Monday by the Denver City Council.
The payment to resolve a class-action claim is the largest settlement to date in a series of cases related to Denver Police Department officers’ actions during protests motivated by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, city officials confirmed. It’s an offshoot from a set of cases that separately resulted in a $14 million jury verdict against the city last year over claims of excessive force — a damages award that, if it stands, would dwarf Monday’s curfew settlement.
Last month, New York City approved a $13 million settlement over the alleged actions of the NYPD during the George Floyd demonstrations:
New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 1,300 people who were arrested or beaten by police during racial injustice demonstrations that swept through the city during the summer of 2020.
If approved by a judge, the settlement, which was filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, would be among the most expensive payouts ever awarded in a lawsuit over mass arrests, experts said.
The lawsuit focused on 18 of the many protests that erupted in New York City in the week following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. With certain exceptions, people arrested or subjected to force by NYPD officers at those events will each be eligible for $9,950 in compensation, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.
This was in addition to another class action settlement they agreed to earlier this year involving the protests:
New York City has agreed to pay several million dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by protesters who say they were assaulted, abused and trapped by police using a technique known as “kettling” at a demonstration in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.
In court papers late Tuesday, the city said it will pay $21,500 to each of at least 200 protesters who were detained, arrested or met with force by police during a June 4, 2020, protest in the Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood.
The city said it will also pay $21,500 per plaintiff for legal costs and an extra $2,500 to protesters who were given court appearance tickets, meaning the bill from the class-action lawsuit could be close to $10 million or more.
In a May report from the Guardian, it was gleefully noted that “Cities across the US have agreed to pay out a total of more than $80m in settlements to protesters [allegedly] injured by police during 2020 racial justice protests – a figure experts believe is unprecedented and will rise further as many lawsuits are still playing out.”
A California civil rights attorney, Carol Sobel, predicted to the news outlet that after all the cases were settled, we could see “record amounts… paid out across the country”:
“As I see this now, when all of these cases are concluded, it will probably be a record amount, total, paid out across the country,” said Sobel, as well as a record number of settlements.
One of the civil rights attorneys in the NYC cases, Wylie Stecklow, said the quiet part out loud in response to the favorable verdict in his case:
Wylie Stecklow, an attorney for the protesters in the class action lawsuit, said the growing cost to taxpayers should serve as a “red flag” for city leaders about the NYPD’s inability to correct its “decades old problem with constitutionally compliant protest policing.”
“While the arc of the moral universe is indeed long, sometimes it needs reform to bend towards justice” he said.
In other words, the point is to punish the city and its law enforcement agencies so badly that they figure it’s better to look away rather than take action when radicals take things too far.
Are the police right in every incident involving the use of aggressive tactics including force against these groups? Of course not. But the goal of the woke protesters and their lawyers, as noted above, is to shame and demoralize local leaders and LEOs so much so that they effectively give up and allow the lunatics to run the asylum, a situation that unfortunately is playing out all over the country.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Money Laundering. Turning the Citizens’ funds into the Democrats dollars.
Had a Kool-Aid drinker tell me this week Riots never happened in the US. I asked about 2021 and 1965. When he gets over the “deer in the headlights look” I might get a response.
Also 1968.
Don’t forget 1992. I’m still awed by the rooftop Koreans.
Ask him about the 1968 DC riots in the 14th Street Corridor.
If the police cant, private citizens will. Not a threat, just a fact. People will get fed up. Go back and look at the time someone put a Gatling gun in front of the New York Times during a riot. Coming soon to a city near you.
Do anything close to that and you will be in prison for a long time.
Sadly true. In the very end, the LEOs and courts are on the side of those who feee them (write the paychecks).
Good doggies!
If Biden starts a war with Russia to keep power for the Democrats, a lot worse than that is going to happen.
Not if you are a Dem protected minority. The Left’s excuse is that burning and some cases death are the only means of “calling for help” that these people have.
You are all so cute.
There is no law. There are no courts. There is only the Democrats punitive apparatus.
As long as the tactic drains only “Woke, Democrat-Run Cities,” more power to them.
Come out my way, you won’t be kettled… you’ll be colandered. Bring your lawyers.
Wrong. These cities keep asking for bailouts and as long as Dems are in power, they are getting them.
It is affecting you right now.
Yep. Any Congressman voting to send Federal taxpayer dollars to failed jurisdictions needs to be primaried and replaced. If the blue enclaves whether Cities like NY or States such as Illinois refuse to make the changes necessary to stop the bleeding no matter if it is fiscal policy, bloated pensions or policing and decriminalization then let them fail.
That horse sailed when Carter bailed out Chrysler in 1979. Compared to bailing out a private corporation, bailing out another government is now considered “common sense.”
The difference being that Chrysler paid back that debt with interest, early.
Ha. No not gonna be willing to bail out Illinois when they refuse to stop digging the hole.
Ironclaw
The other difference is the scale and the relative financial position of the federal govt.
In ’79 total US federal debt was $837 billion which was 32% of US GDP.
In 2022 total US federal debt was $30+ Trillion which comes in at 123% of US GDP.
Currently total US federal debt is over $32 Trillion and a GDP ratio of over 130%.
For comparison when the EU had it’s debt crisis a decade or so ago and some EU Nations seized private bank accounts and every depositor got a haircut the highest debt to GDP ratio in those Nations was 114%.
In sum, the Feds ain’t got the money to spare.
“not gonna be willing to bail out Illinois when they refuse to stop digging the hole”
One word: Zelenskyyyyyyyy,
Great article, Ms. Matthews. The same thing played out in the George Floyd case, where the municipality was sued, and then immediately conceded fault and liability well before ANY evidence was heard in the police officer’s criminal trial. The woke elected officials there couldn’t wait to write a huge taxpayer funded check payable to black “victims” to signal their woke virtue.
I’m in favor of making any future payouts to BLM’ers in the form of jacketed lead.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivering the response to Biden’s February 2023 State of the Union Address
(https://governor.arkansas.gov/news_post/governor-sarah-huckabee-sanders-delivers-the-republican-address-to-the-nation/ )”
“The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left.
“The choice is between normal or crazy.
* * *
“Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols…all while big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is—your Freedom of speech.
“That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”
So Democrat juries are deciding that Democrat cities need to pay compensation when Burn Loot Murder types get a boo boo?
That’s fine. Just don’t expect non-Democrats to want to keep living there and funding the insanity.
When Democrats start wondering why their cities are broke, lawless hellholes, everyone else will be able to explain it in simple language.
This is a short-term gain for BLM, a long run loss for the black community. Police will be reluctant to do anything in black areas, and the people who will suffer the most are blacks in black communities.
Anti-White Racism and the Maui Fires
“No white man is ever going to live here.”
https://www.frontpagemag.com/anti-white-racism-and-the-maui-fires/
Welcome to a different version of systemic racism.
Where, for some, everyday is “Kill Haole Day”
An Associated Press article claimed that two racist thugs beating a man and planning to kill him reflects “Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race.”
I guess they could remake “Mississippi Burning” (1988) as “Hawaii Burning”
Republican protesters get 3A SWAT teams and FBI manhunts
Democrats get apologies and seven-figure settlements
lol so when do the families of the murdered jan 6 protesters get their settlement?
they used asphyxiant gas on a crowd in a tunnel
also shot peaceful protesters in the face with gas canisters