The Black Artist Collective and Black Cuse Pride have reached a settlement with the City of Syracuse in their permit lawsuit.
The organizations sued the city over a year ago after the permitting process required them to pay for police to work their planned events. They argued they had hired adequate private security for the event and did not budget to pay $55 an hour per officer at the event, and they did not want to subject event attendees to the discretionary searches by police that the permit allowed.
According to a Facebook post by the Black Artist Collective, the settlement includes a new permit that would allow organizations to opt of hiring police if they have an approved private security firm. Additionally, all permits issued by the city over the next five years will be submitted to the Black Artist Collective’s lawyers for bias monitoring.
The Black Artist Collective said in their statement they plan to hold community workshops in the fall on the new permit process. Dates and times for those are still to come.
