Philadelphia has agreed to pay $9.25 million to over 340 protesters and residents who were subjected to excessive police force, including tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, over two days of demonstrations in 2020 following the police murder of George Floyd. The city will also award a half-million dollars to the Bread & Roses Community Fund for a grant that supports grassroots groups in Philadelphia. As part of the historic settlement, the Philadelphia Police Department will also withdraw from the 1033 LESO program, which grants U.S. military equipment to local law enforcement agencies. This is plaintiff Ed Parker, who was detained and brutalized by police, resulting in three surgeries.

Ed Parker: “Hearing the choking, weeping and people calling out for their loved ones was something else entirely. They made sure one of the first things they did was to rip off our masks and then subsequently stuff us on buses and in cells together. This was June of 2020 and the pandemic implications of which should not be underplayed. The absurdity of being the subject of police brutality during a protest against police brutality was not lost on us.”