New York City has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by two women who said their rights were violated when they were forced to remove their hijabs before the police took their arrest photographs.
The financial settlement filed on Friday, which still requires approval by Judge Analisa Torres of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is the latest development in the class-action lawsuit filed in 2018 by Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, two Muslim women who said they felt shamed and exposed by the police officers’ actions.
“When they forced me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I were naked; I’m not sure if words can capture how exposed and violated I felt,” Ms.
Clark said in a statement. “I’m so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers.”
In response to the lawsuit, the Police Department in 2020 changed its policy to allow religious people to be photographed wearing head coverings, as long as the coverings were not obstructing their faces.
Ms. Clark, who was arrested on a violation of an order of protection in Manhattan in 2017, said she “wept and begged to put her hijab back on” while standing in Police Headquarters at One Police Plaza with the head scarf around her shoulders, according to the complaint.
Ms. Aziz, who was also arrested on a violation of an order of protection, said she had a similar experience eight months later when she was arrested in Brooklyn.
She sobbed as she “stood with her back to the wall, in full view of approximately one dozen male N.Y.P.D. officers and more than 30 male inmates,” the complaint said.
“Forcing someone to remove their religious clothing is like a strip search,” said Andrew F. Wilson, a lawyer with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, who is representing the women.
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@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Do you think personal religious beliefs should be protected in all situations, including legal procedures?
@9LCG82Q2yrs2Y
I think that no matter what a persons religious beliefs should always be protected.I mean it's one of our amendments.
@9LCFSQ9Independent2yrs2Y
I feel like people have religious beliefs and legal procedures and the people that are doing the legal procedures take the people's religious beliefs into consideration. Some people have religious beliefs that go against legal procedures and people should respect that.
@9LCFZ6F2yrs2Y
I think that religion should be protected sometimes. If it is always protected in all situations, people can lie.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
How would you feel if you were forced to remove an item of clothing that is a fundamental part of your identity in front of strangers?
@9LCGNYYRepublican2yrs2Y
I would just remove it, go home and cry a little bit.
@9LCGNC9Constitution2yrs2Y
I'd say you were either poorly parented or something going on in your head materials items can always be replaced if is not much of value. I don't make clothing item part of my identity because I would consider myself if I did.
@9LCGC9M2yrs2Y
If we are speaking of hijabs and such, I don’t see a reason for them to have to take things as such off and I also don’t think that there should be cases of removing clothing unless it is something dangerous which most pieces of clothing are harmless.
@9LCFLNK2yrs2Y
I think its uncomfortable for people to take there clothes off in public and being exposed in a weird way.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
If a policy made you feel violated or exposed, how might you want the responsible institution to rectify the situation?
I would cry and state my thoughts to an opinion because let me tell you the three W's what why where
@9LCFJY52yrs2Y
I think that its not ok for you to be uncomfortable
Why pay so much money for this?
Why is it paid with taxpayers' money so carelessly?
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@V3toJasminePatriot2yrs2Y
Lesson: go break the law get arrested and say you got photographed withiut a hijab get millions of taxpayer money.
Lesson 2: NYC is ran by retards.
Islam. Does. Not. Belong. In. America.
Do they make arrestees take off their hats? Is there a good reason to have a clear picture? Of course.
But god forbid some Muslims feel uncomfortable while being arrested.
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