The city of Seattle has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit over the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
The lawsuit involves more than 50 plaintiffs who claim injuries arising from clashes with police during the riots following the death of George Floyd.
Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison, in a press release, stated that “This decision was the best financial decision for the City considering risk, cost, and insurance,” going on to state that “The case has been a significant drain on the time and resources of the City.”
Ann Davidson is a former Democrat who left the Democratic Party in 2020 to become a Republican, and went on to defeat a far-left candidate in the November 2021 election.
In the statement, the city admitted no wrongdoing in the case. The statement went on to note the substantial volume of evidence associated with the case, citing hundreds of interactions between the plaintiffs and police, over a million pages of records, over 10,000 videos, and hundreds of interviews.
The statement says that this settles a “majority” of claims, indicating that not all claims have been settled yet.
According to court records, the city had argued that the protestors “assumed the risk” of being injured when those chose to protest. This argument was rejected by Judge Sandra Widlan.
Lead plaintiff attorney Karen Koehler called out the city for not admitting wrongdoing, saying, “They should have said, ‘We’re sorry that we were punks and brutalized peaceful protestors.’”
Documents posted on X by talk show host Ari Hoffman reveal that Seattle is allocating nearly an additional $5 million to “pay anticipated, pending or actual judgements, claims payments, advance claims payments, and litigation expenses incurred while defending the City.”
https://x.com/thehoffather/status/1750424673018585594?s=20
This settlement is a sharp contrast to the prison sentences assigned to the January 6, 2021, protestors who trespassed or committed acts of vandalism at the United States Capitol. Many of these individuals have been sentenced to 10 or more years in prison.
Just last year, the city of Seattle paid $3.6 million to business owners who claimed that the city’s handling of the protests damaged their businesses.
