George Floyd's family to receive $36m settlement

NEW YORK • The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay US$27 million (S$36 million) to the family of Mr George Floyd, the black man whose death set off months of protests across the US after a viral video showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck.

The payment to settle the family's lawsuit is among the largest of its kind, and it comes as the officer, Derek Chauvin, is set to stand trial this month on charges including second-degree murder.

As the settlement was announced by city officials and lawyers for Mr Floyd's family, Chauvin sat in a courtroom some 1km away, where jurors were being selected for his trial.

Mayor Jacob Frey called the agreement a milestone for the city's future.

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is among those representing Mr Floyd's family, said it could set an example for other communities. "After the eyes of the world rested on Minneapolis in its darkest hour, now the city can be a beacon of hope and light and change for cities across America and across the globe," he said.

But legal experts said the agreement might make it even harder to seat an impartial jury in the case against Chauvin, which was already a challenge because of the attention given to Mr Floyd's death and the intense demonstrations that followed.

In the first four days of jury selection last week, nearly all of the potential jurors said they had seen the video of his arrest, including all but one of the seven selected for the trial so far.

Ms Mary Moriarty, the former chief public defender in Minneapolis, said the timing could hardly be worse for the court case and that Chauvin's lawyers might even ask for a mistrial.

The large payment was a sign of the magnitude of the response to Mr Floyd's death, which led to protests in hundreds of cities, changes in local and state laws and a reckoning over racism and police abuse in the country.

In Minneapolis, a police station and many businesses were burned over several nights of unrest.

At a news conference, Mr Crump said the agreement would "allow healing to begin" in the city.

He said the family had pledged to donate US$500,000 to "lift up" the neighbourhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, the corner where the police confronted Mr Floyd on May 25 last year.

The officers had arrived after a store clerk called the police and said that Mr Floyd had tried to pay with a fake US$20 bill.

Minneapolis pays its settlements out of a fund for legal payouts and workers' compensation claims, and residents have expressed concern that their taxes are subsidising payments for the misconduct of the police while failing to hold officers accountable.

Activists have pushed for legislation that would require officers to carry their own liability insurance, with premiums that could rise after cases of misconduct.

Mr Floyd's family had sued Minneapolis last July, saying that the police had violated his rights and failed to properly train its officers or fire those who violated department policies.

NYTIMES