Long time readers (do I have any of those?) will recall this post about a bunch of kids in Bushwick, Brooklyn, going to the wake of a friend.

Wearing white t-shirts with a picture of the deceased teen and the letters RIP on them, a group went to pay respect.  On the way, the cops swooped down on them.  They were hauled away to the 83 Precinct, searched and held.  It’s not entirely clear why, except “unlawful assembly” was mentioned.  The kids didn’t know what that was (a separate indictment of the NYC school system).

Bob Herbert wondered why things like this only seem to happen to black kids in Bushwick. I explained that it was because nice white suburban parents would never allow this to happen to our kids.

This is a big mountain to climb, and those of us who live in the cushy, protected and (dare I say it) white neighborhoods pretend not to see it or, more likely, just ignore it because it isn’t our fight.  It’s not our kids being hassled.  They better not do that to our kids.  If they do…Well, they’re gonna have to deal with me!  But they’re not our kids.  They are the children of the powerless, the uneducated, the poor.  And they have no champion to protect them.

In the two years that elapsed, there was one guy who decided that he could be bothered with a bunch of black kids from Bushwick, and as first reported by Eric Turkewitz at New York Personal Injury law, a settlement has been reached for 16 of the youths.

According to Michael Scolnick, a civil rights attorney that represented 16 settling plaintiffs, an agreement was reached recently in federal court to dispose of those cases. The settlements ranged from $9,000 to $20,000. Scolnick said:

The settlement was on two levels: the 6 boys and girls (under 16 years of age) who either were not charged or were given desk appearance tickets and later dismissed without appearing, but were in custody from two to six hours, cuffed to a pipe or a Snapple machine, each settled for $9,000. The older ones who had formal charges issued against them for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct settled for $20K.

Whether these are the right numbers for the frivolous, baseless, obviously racist arrests of black kids on their way to a wake, I can’t say.  Frankly, it seems to be a little light if we want to make the city think twice before allowing its cops to engage in mass arrests to show how that they are more powerful than a bunch of kids on their way to a wake.  But I can’t second guess based on my limited knowledge.

On the other hand, that these kids came out of it without rap sheets is something of a victory as well.  The cases against all the kids were thankfully dismissed.  The kids got at least something in return for being harassed, arrested and/or held in custody.  As for Michael Scolnick, who fought for 16 settling plaintiffs, the fee will likely be scarcely worth the time and effort required by the case.  But he did a good thing for some kids from Bushwick who needed someone who cared enough to help.