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New York Metropolis has agreed to pay $17.5 million in a category motion lawsuit led by two Muslim girls who say their non secular rights have been violated when police pressured them to take away their hijabs for mugshots after they have been arrested.
The preliminary monetary settlement, which nonetheless must be accepted by a district court docket choose, was filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court docket on Friday and greater than 3,600 persons are eligible for payouts below the deal.
The 2 girls, Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, initially filed the go well with in 2018 after they have been arrested for violating orders of safety that they known as bogus. They have been each arrested the yr prior yr in Manhattan and Brooklyn, respectively.
A lady sporting a hijab in New York (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Photographs)
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They mentioned they felt disgrace and trauma after being pressured to take away the pinnacle coverings that are worn by Muslim girls in observance of the Islamic faith. Their attorneys likened eradicating the hijabs to being strip-searched.
“Once they pressured me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I have been bare,” Clark mentioned in an announcement supplied by her attorneys. “I am undecided if phrases can seize how uncovered and violated I felt.”
“I’m so proud as we speak to have performed a component in getting justice for 1000’s of New Yorkers.”
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Payouts will whole about $13.1 million after authorized charges and prices are deducted, and will improve if sufficient of the greater than 3,600 eligible class members submit claims. Every recipient will probably be paid between $7,824 and $13,125.
Albert Fox Cahn, a lawyer for Clark and Aziz, mentioned the settlement was a milestone for New Yorkers’ privateness and spiritual rights.
“The NYPD ought to by no means have stripped these non secular New Yorkers of their head coverings and dignity,” Cahn mentioned, based on the New York Instances.
He mentioned the accord “sends a strong message that the NYPD cannot violate New Yorkers’ First Modification rights with out paying a value.”
The New York Metropolis skyline. (Fox Information Picture/Joshua Comins)
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In response to the lawsuit, New York’s police division agreed in 2020 to let women and men put on head coverings throughout mugshots, as long as their faces could possibly be seen.
“This settlement resulted in a optimistic reform for the NYPD,” mentioned Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the town’s regulation division. “The settlement rigorously balances the division’s respect for firmly held non secular beliefs with the vital regulation enforcement must take arrest pictures.”
The go well with follows a 2018 case the place New York Metropolis was made pay out $180,000 to a few Muslim girls after they have been additionally pressured to take off their hijabs for mugshots.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a author for Fox Information Digital and Fox Enterprise.
You may ship tricks to [email protected] and observe him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
NYC to pay $17.5M for forcing Muslim girls to take away hijab for mugshot
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