The city of Portland, Oregon, may soon be paying $100,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who said that he was unlawfully arrested, pepper-sprayed and thrown to the ground by the police during a Black Lives Matter protest in September 2020, according to the Associated Press. 

On Dec. 20, The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that 40-year-old Dmitri Stoyanoff said he was arrested because he did not get rid of the “Vote Register Here” sign he was holding during a demonstration in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, which was created in 2013 in response to Trayvon Martin’s murder. 

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On Dec. 29, the City Council is set to vote on the settlement, as it is the latest in a series of payouts this year resulting from police actions during protests since 2016, according to the Associated Press. 

The city of Portland will have paid $335,000 this year, including this most recent settlement, in lawsuits related to police presence at protests. 

Stoyanoff stated that police attempted to take away his sign “for no legal reason” and that as he was trying to hold on to it, he was sprayed in the eyes and face, thrown to the ground and accused of interfering with police, per AP. According to court records, the initial charges were dropped. 

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Attorneys for the city said officers were allowed to temporarily take hold of the pole from Stoyanoff’s sign for safekeeping, as they believed it was a deadly and dangerous weapon. 

They made the case that police acted lawfully in response to a potential riot.