After 10 weeks, the historic Floyd v. City of New York trial ended yesterday. The entire day was devoted to over five hours of closing arguments, which you can read a summary of here.
It has been an amazing 10 weeks. There were dramatic courtroom moments; there was moving testimony that highlighted the immense human toll that stop and frisk takes on hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers every year. There were days of expert evidence that often felt more like a graduate seminar in statistics than a trial. There were tapes that documented supervisors telling cops to “make numbers” and stop a certain number of people, and testimony that showed that no one is following up to ensure that stops are constitutional. There were sometimes ludicrous and sometimes shocking assertions from police officers and officials – ranging from the claim that jaywalking is suspicious behavior to the question, “How do we know that they are utterly innocent?” about people who were stopped but not arrested or issued summonses.
All the while, there was a steady stream of New Yorkers who sat in the courtroom and listened to CCR and its co-counsel grill police officials and present evidence that “the NYPD has laid siege to Black and Latino neighborhoods, tossing constitutional requirements out the window,” as Gretchen Hoff-Varner from Covington & Burling put it yesterday. Over the course of 10 weeks, dozens of community groups turned out to support the plaintiffs in the Floyd trial (many organized by Communities United for Police Reform, of which CCR is a proud member). Sometimes the courtroom was packed and the court had to provide overflow rooms. Sometimes it was just an extra 10 or 20 people who were there to listen. There was one man, Prof. Lawrence Rushing, who came to court literally every day of the trial. “In a sense it was kind of a liberating feeling,” he told NPR. Floyd v. City of New York was New Yorkers’ chance to have their day in court.
New Yorkers also engaged in street theater, rallies and actions outside the courthouse. And Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) recorded a video to bring attention to the issue and the trial.
The trial also drew unprecedented media attention. Trial proceedings were covered in literally hundreds of articles and broadcasts throughout the country; there were reporters there every day, and two daily press briefings by attorneys and witnesses in the case.
Throughout it all, CCR wrote and sent out a daily report for every day of the trial. You can read them all on the CCR website.
We could not have done any of this work without you, our supporters.