Judge Rules That NYPD Can Hold Protesters For More Than 24 Hours

NEW YORK, NY — Protesters arrested during demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism following the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd can be held by police for more than 24 hours prior to arraignment, a state judge ruled Thursday.

Supreme Court Justice James Burke's ruling temporarily overturns state requirements to arraign people within 24 hours of their arrest. The Legal Aid Society filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to force the NYPD to release New Yorkers being held in custody in violation of the 24 hour arrest-to-arraignment requirement.

More than 200 New Yorkers were being held longer than 24 hours without arraignment at the time of Thursday's court hearing, the Daily News reported.

Lawyers with the Legal Aid Society secured the 24 hour arrest-to-arraignment requirement in the 1991 court case Roundtree v. Brown. Burke cited the case in his ruling, focusing on the provision that arrestees held longer than 24 hours before arraignment should be released unless "acceptable explanation for the delay is given," the New York Law Journal reported. The effects of the coronavirus crisis on the judicial system, combined with the massive police effort to contain protests qualified as an acceptable explanation to Burke.

"There is a crisis within a crisis," Burke said during Thursday's court hearing.

Courts have been forced to conduct hearings remotely due to social distancing restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Judges cannot process cases as quickly in the virtual hearings as in physical courtrooms, according to the New York Law Journal's report. The hearings are also at risk of technical difficulties that slow down the speed of arraignments.

Lawyers for the NYPD also argued that police are unable to process arrests due to the massive number of cops out on the streets watching over protests and guarding businesses from looting, the Daily News reported. Legal Aid lawyers countered the argument, saying that a department with 38,000 officers and a budget of nearly $6 billion should be well-equipped to handle the minor charges associated with protest arrests.

Thousands of New Yorkers have taken to the streets in each of the city's five boroughs for seven straight days and nights to protest police brutality since the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Mayor Bill de Blasio established a curfew after groups of organized looters, separate from the protesters, used the demonstrations as a diversion to ransack businesses in SoHo and Midtown Manhattan. The 8 p.m. curfew has been used as justification to arrest large groups of peaceful protesters.