NYPD to ban protest enforcement tactic used during 2020 George Floyd unrest — and many observers are less than thrilled about move

The New York City Police Department will ban the protest enforcement tactic known as "kettling," which was used during 2020 George Floyd unrest, as part of a lawsuit settlement, Reuters reported.

What are the details?

Kettling occurs when police officers surround a crowd in order to control it, the outlet said, adding that critics claim kettling traps lawful protesters and innocent bystanders.

The settlement of the lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the Legal Aid Society, and the New York Civil Liberties Union describes kettling as enclosing targeted individuals without having probable cause to detain them, Reuters added.

More from the outlet:

Police will also create a new senior executive role to oversee responses to demonstrations, allow the press more leeway to cover marches, and create a four-tiered response to protests designed to de-escalate conflict and prevent excessive use of force, according to a filing in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Those suits were filed in response to a raucous summer of protests in 2020 when police cracked down on demonstrations against police brutality and in favor of African American rights after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Similar protests rocked cities across the United Sates.

"Today's settlement represents a novel approach to policing protests that, if implemented faithfully by the NYPD, will ensure that protesters are never again met with the sort of indiscriminate violence and retaliatory over-policing New York saw in the summer of 2020," Legal Aid attorney Corey Stoughton said in the statement, according to Reuters.

The outlet said the NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NYPD agrees to reform protest tactics in settlementyoutu.be

How are observers reacting to the decision?

Commenters reacting to the Reuters story published by Yahoo News weren't very happy about police scaling back their efforts to keep protests under control. The following are but a handful of them:

• "Scale back? I watched my neighborhood burn, windows smashed, people running [amok] on the streets," one commenter said. "My building was boarded up, we were told not to leave at certain hours [due] to safety..."
• "It is important to protect the constitutional right to loot and burn," another commenter quipped. "Generations of our ancestors fought and died for your right to retrieve the big screen TV that is rightfully yours."
• "Absolute craziness as this just gives more power to the violent protesters who will just step up the protest!" another commenter declared.
• "So the entire city will burn during the next riots, the police (city of New York) have tied their own hands, and they will only be able to stand by and watch as the flames consume both the guilty and the innocent," another commenter noted.
• "You got the green light BLM and ANTIFA," another commenter wrote.
• "Now that's some real heads-up policing strategy," another commenter observed. "When the looting, burning, rock, and Molotov throwing start, just when do they decide to intervene?"

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