Police offi cers detained Crown Heights State Senator Zellnor Myrie on
May 29. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
COURIER LIFE, JULY 2-8, 2021 27
BY BEN BRACHFELD
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie
and Assemblymember Diana
Richardson are suing the
NYPD in federal court, alleging
that the Department violated
their civil rights during
last year’s protests against police
brutality in Brooklyn.
The lawsuit, fi led in federal
district court in Brooklyn
on Monday, claims that Myrie
and Richardson were subject
to excessive force at protests
in May of last year at the
hands of the NYPD, including
being kettled and pepper
sprayed. Myrie was also subject
to an unlawful arrest, the
suit claims.
“The experience was a painful
and humiliating reminder
that following the rules and
complying with police orders
does not protect Black Americans
from police brutality, not
even Black Americans who
have ascended to elected offi
ce,” the fi ling reads.
The suit, fi rst reported by
the New York Times, names
the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio,
Police Commissioner Dermot
Shea, and Chief of Department
Rodney Harrison as defendants;
Harrison is being sued
in his offi cial capacity in place
of Terence Monahan, who was
chief during the protests but
has since retired.
The suit also names several
rank-and-fi le offi cers from the
NYPD’s Strategic Response
Group, namely Captain Joseph
Taylor, Sergeant Giovanni
Calderon, and Offi cers
Jessica Clinton, Solomon Jacobs,
and Jorge Perez, as well
as one unidentifi ed offi cer referred
to as John Doe.
Myrie and Richardson,
both of whom represent Central
Brooklyn in Albany, are
being represented by the law
fi rm Kaplan Hecker & Fink
LLP.
The protest in question
took place at the Barclays Center
on May 29, 2020, four days
after the murder of George
Floyd, and near the beginning
of the mass protests that engulfed
the city in the following
days. While Myrie and Richardson
both wanted to make
their voices heard at the protest
to call for police accountability
and racial justice,
they also believed that their
presence as elected offi cials
“would promote peace and respect
between the police and
protestors.”
Myrie and Richardson
noted that they reached out
to NYPD leadership prior to
heading to the protest, and
both wore clothing identifying
themselves and their position.
After offi cers played a prerecorded
message ordering the
crowd they were in to disperse,
without giving a reason why,
Myrie and Richardson say they
began moving away from Barclays,
complying with offi cers’
orders. Nevertheless, the offi -
cers began to kettle the crowd,
and cops eventually rammed
the pols with bikes in an act
the suit alleges as assault.
As this happened, Richardson
was rushed by Offi cers
Clinton and Perez, and was
pepper sprayed in the eyes by
Perez without warning. She
was pushed to the ground,
“blinded” and “in excruciating
pain.” She was not offered
medical attention and no offi
cer intervened on her behalf
as she was being assaulted, the
suit alleges.
Myrie, meanwhile, was
maced in the eyes by the unidentifi
ed offi cer as he “was being
hit by police offi cers with
bicycles and questioning their
unjustifi ed use of force.” He was
“blinded and terrifi ed,” and felt
“unbearable pain.” Myrie was
then handcuffed with zip ties
by Taylor and Calderon, and
was then taken towards buses
that were being used to haul
away arrested protesters. No
offi cer intervened on Myrie’s
behalf, the suit alleges, nor did
any offi cer intervene to provide
Myrie with medical attention.
James Floyd shows a photo of his son Jamel to a crowd outside the
Metropolitan Detention Centr in Sunset Park. Photo by Paul Frangipane
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The family of Jamel
Floyd sued the Metropolitan
Detention Center and 30
MDC correctional offi cers
in federal court on Wednesday
on fi ve counts, including
wrongful death and negligence
in the face of a fatal
medical episode. Brooklyn
Paper fi rst reported that
Floyd’s family had vowed to
sue earlier this month, on
the one-year anniversary of
his death.
The case, fi led Wednesday
morning in Brooklyn
federal district court, alleges
severe mistreatment
of Floyd by guards at the
notorious lockup, both before
and during the incident
that led to this death.
“Mr. Floyd’s life was
cut abruptly short by correctional
officers who subjected
Mr. Floyd to excessive
force and then stood by
while he slowly died,” the
lawsuit reads.
Floyd had been transferred
to the federal prison
in Sunset Park from state
prison at Sing Sing in October
2019. He was eligible for
a parole hearing just three
days after his death, and
would have been eligible
for parole in October 2020.
The family claims that
Floyd’s death was caused
by a cardiac arrest brought
about by massive amounts
of mace sprayed into his
cell; the city’s Medical Examiner
disagreed, contending
that Floyd had had a
“synthetic cannabinoid”
in his system at the time of
his death that triggered the
cardiac arrest.
The family, represented
by name in the case by
Floyd’s mother Donna
Mays, claims that approximately
28 guards were
present at Floyd’s death,
and that none did anything
to save his life until it was
far too late. The suit claims
that in the early hours of
June 3, 2020, Floyd began
crying for help and banging
on the door of his cell
to no answer. Floyd was
spoken to by guards and
by a prison psychologist,
all of whom did not address
Floyd’s health.
Eventually, Floyd ripped
an unclear “piece of hardware”
from his sink and
broke his cell door’s window.
Approximately 28
guards (the family does not
have a firm number) eventually
showed up, some with
riot shields, but Floyd cried
out that he was in need of
medical attention and that
staff were “not listening.”
The family, who told
Brooklyn Paper last month
that they had seen video of
the incident, alleges that
guards did not attempt to
verbally calm Floyd down,
and instead sprayed “multiple
canisters” of pepper
spray into the cell, so much
that other inmates put towels
under their cell doors
or T-shirts over their face.
Floyd began “coughing,
gagging, and choking” and
eventually collapsed, the result,
per the family, of being
excessively maced.
Myrie, Richardson
sue NYPD for civil
rights violations
Jamel Floyd’s
family sues MDC,
30 jail guards