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Tips for Choosing a New York Police Brutality Lawyer`


— November 8, 2022

A lawyer with many years of practice in the field will also investigate the police agents’ past. You might not be the first one they abused.


Dozens of NYPD officers should be disciplined for misconduct for their actions during the police brutality protests that swept the city in 2020, following the death of George Floyd. According to a report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a number of 65 officers were found guilty of using excessive force, lying to the investigators, using offensive language and abuse of authority. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as the board was unable to review more than a third of the complaints it received. 

As mentalities are unlikely to change any time soon, people only have one option – contact an experienced New York police brutality lawyer when they are victims of excessive force or any other type of police abuse. 

The protests last year received worldwide attention, but many of the police misconduct cases in New York happen away from the camera and, sadly, most of them go unreported. The main reason for that is that people are unaware of their constitutional rights. How many young African American were stopped by the police on the street for no apparent reason? That’s a violation of the Fourth Amendment which protects civilians from unwarranted searches and seizures. How many of them were beaten or tasered by cops and thrown in a cell to nurse their wounds as best they could? That goes against the Eighth Amendment which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

The law protects you. All you need is the courage to stand up for your rights and talk to a trustworthy police brutality lawyer in New York City. The inquest into the widespread misconduct during the George Floyd protests was made possible by the hundreds of complaints made by those injured during the police intervention.

Water cannon used for crowd control in Jerusalem during the 2020 protests against Benjamin Netanyahu, with blue dye added to the stream. Or Barenholtz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Water cannon used for crowd control in Jerusalem during the 2020 protests against Benjamin Netanyahu, with blue dye added to the stream. Or Barenholtz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Talking to a lawyer doesn’t cost anything. Police brutality attorneys work on a contingency fee so they’ll only get paid when they win the case for you. What you’ll get is an ally, someone with the legal expertise to guide you through the process of filing a complaint with the right authority. 

And your lawyer will work tirelessly to present your side of the story. They will talk to eyewitnesses and review body cam footage to understand exactly what happened. The cops might say they had to use force because you resisted arrest, but what if eyewitnesses state you had your hands up in the air and you were not threatening the agents in any way? If you were stopped and searched without due cause, a skilled criminal defense attorney will argue that any discovery made by the police is inadmissible as it was illegally obtained. 

A lawyer with many years of practice in the field will also investigate the police agents’ past. You might not be the first one they abused. Maybe they have been accused of misconduct in the past, which establishes a pattern of abuse. Your lawyer will want to know how it was possible that their superiors did not reprimand them and offer them proper training. If that is the case, your complaint can be extended to include charges against the police department as a whole. And they will have to pay for what they did. In some cases, they might face criminal charges or you can file a civil complaint asking for damages for all your suffering.

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