![]() Zayer is one of scores of protesters whose injuries were captured and posted on social media. Police violence against protesters last year was widely documented, but it’s unclear just how many people endured injuries because not everyone sought medical attention or even reported their attacks. If I stand to do my dishes for more than 15 minutes, I’m in pain.” “If I want to set my air conditioner up, if I want to carry my groceries up my stairs, if I want to clean my cat litter. I have to reach out to people for help with almost everything,” she said. Now Zayer remains unemployed and is struggling to live by herself. Zayer said she quit her job as a teacher because of her injuries and briefly tried working as a nanny to make ends meet, but that proved too painful. Zayer testified at a virtual public hearing regarding NYPD misconduct and has filed a lawsuit against the city, as well as the NYPD, D’Andraia and others.Ī former gymnast, Zayer said she fears her days of mobility and flexibility are over. Over a year later, D’Andraia remains on modified duty, an NYPD spokesperson said, and it is unclear what penalties he will face. The officer Zayer alleged to have smacked her cellphone out of her hand and pushed her, Vincent D’Andraia, was initially arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault. She said she has stopped driving because she fears being pulled over by police and facing abuse because of the publicity surrounding her injury. Zayer said she is still undergoing physical therapy. He walked away from it, but he ruined my life.” “It was a single moment this man made this decision. “I catch myself in pain so frequently,” Zayer said. ![]() She said she suffered four herniated discs, two pinched nerves, a sprained ligament in her back, and a concussion when a New York City police officer allegedly shoved her violently to the pavement during a protest on May 29 in Brooklyn. “He’s got years worth of recovery in front of him.”ĭounya Zayer, 22, said this is certainly true for her. In the post, officials said the officer rescued the lost child from the “complete lawlessness” of the protest, writing, “WE ARE the only thing standing between Order and Anarchy.” Later, the nation's largest police labor union,the National Fraternal Order of Police, posted a Facebook photo showing Young's son in the arms of a female Philadelphia police officer just after the incident. I never thought in a million years that my body would feel so old so soon. I can’t even hold a baby for a long time because my arm will give out on me. “I still ache every day,” she said of her injuries. However, she said neither the settlement nor the lawsuit can undo what happened. Young, whose son is now 3, has also sued the police union over the photo, which she claims was misleading. The city of Philadelphia recently agreed to pay Young a $2 million settlement for the attack in September. She became separated from her son amid the attack. She was attempting to make a U-turn through the rowdy crowd when Philadelphia police officers approached her car, broke the windows, dragged her from the vehicle and beat her. 27, 2020, to pick up a family friend who was out among demonstrators protesting the killing of Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man who had been shot by police responding to a 911 call a day earlier. She was driving through West Philadelphia early on Oct. From that moment, I was fighting to live.” I was yelling, ‘My son’s in the car, stop! Stop!’ Then I felt my face on fire from the mace. ![]() “They were trying to bust all of the windows out. “The cops were banging and yelling, ‘Get the f- out of the car!’” Young recalled. ![]() Not only was she worried for her own safety, but Young said she feared for her toddler son’s life. She heard one window shatter, then another. Rickia Young, a 29-year-old nurse’s aide, clearly remembers the moment police officers swarmed her car in West Philadelphia last year.
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