New York City will dish out $15 million to the 22,000 people--many of whom were panhandlers-- arrested for loitering by the NYPD who used laws that were deemed unconstitutional decades ago.
The class action settlement, according to The New York Times, came after a federal judge in 2010 found the city in contempt for "obstinance and uncooperativeness" for enforcing laws that "banned loitering to panhandle or to search for a secks partner, or while in a bus or train station."
The anti-loitering law, passed in New York in 1964, was found to be in violation of the First Amendment three times by federal and state courts between 1983 and 1993 and yet, from 1983 to 2012, 22,000 people were still arrested using the statute.
"Thousands of New Yorkers were arrested and forced to defend themselves in court, and even serve time in jail, for completely legal behavior," said Katherine Rosenfeld, representing the eight plaintiffs in the case, according to The New York Daily News.
And she added, according to The Times, "All of the people who got charged under these statutes had not very much power: homeless people, gay people, marginalized people, vulnerable people."
In order for people to collect on the settlement, in payouts ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, must file official claims--a task that may be beyond many of those homeless beggars arrested on the city's streets years ago.
The eight plaintiffs named in the case, which started in 2005, will each be awarded $25,000, while the law firms which handled the case will get a a maximum $3.5 million in attorney and administrative fees, according to The Daily News.
City Of New York To Pay $15 Million To Loiterers Arrested Illegally By NYPD Since 1983
Linear Mode
