The city of Detroit announced Tuesday it has dismissed most of its misdemeanor citations from the George Floyd protests this summer.
Many of the citations, the city said, stemmed from a citywide curfew on May 31 and June 1-2 that prohibited activity after 8 p.m. as hundreds of people demonstrated in downtown Detroit, Fox News reports.
The city expects to dismiss 238 of the 245 tickets issued on those three days, Detroit Corporation Counsel Lawrence Garcia said.
The other five protestors were arrested and charged with assaulting, resisting, obstructing a police officer, a two-year felony.
“In the many months since those tickets were issued, the city Law Department and police department have worked to study videotape and other evidence from the events in question,” Garcia said.
They also “considered the discretion that was exercised during that week,” including citations “written on June 1 were never submitted to the court” and that some “protesters were not ticketed at all, despite being out after curfew,” he said.
“Although certain cases from these two dates will be pursued, the city believes it is best to dismiss the vast majority of citations,” Garcia said.
Macomb County, Detroit officials came under pressure to drop the charges from residents and groups aimed at fighting alleged unfair treatment from police.
In addition to those in Detroit, cities nationwide are deciding how to handle arrests from the summer protests and have dismissed charges.
Denver City Attorney’s Office dismissed 320 cases involving people who were arrested for violating a curfew. Harris County District Attorney’s office in June dismissed charges against about 600 people tied to protests in Houston, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles also decided they will not prosecute protesters arrested in connection with curfew violations and other police orders.