NYC to Pay $15mil in Damages for Illegal Loitering Charges

Yesterday a federal court in Manhattan approved a class action settlement requiring New York City to pay $15 Million Dollars to approximately 22,000 New Yorkers who were illegally charged by the New York City Police Department under unconstitutional “loitering” statutes between 1983 and this year.

The NYPD continued to enforce these void statutes for decades after New York state and federal courts had struck down these laws in the 1980s and 1990s, on First Amendment and other constitutional grounds.

That’s 22,000 people. The NYPD uses “loitering” statues to arrest innocent people who are poor and disenfranchised. Press release from the Bronx Defenders here.