New court documents obtained by News 12 show private messages among NYPD officers' moments before they responded to a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

According to those documents, the conversations took place ahead of protests on June 4, 2020 in Mott Haven, where hundreds of protesters were arrested.

The messages were sent by high-ranking NYPD officers in a group chat to coordinate the strategic response group for the night.

In the messages, one captain wrote "we are looking for arrests...can we plz play too?" In the same thread, a sergeant wrote "Kick their a-- tonight Capt!!"

In a separate thread on the same night, the conversation started with a text from an officer who says "lets have fun and be safe." Several coordination messages were followed by a screenshot that claimed captain's heard gang members wanted to "link up and kill a cop or two" that night.

The messages were made public by a federal judge in response to a pending lawsuit where the attorney claims officers trapped, kettled and brutally assaulted protestors that night.

The city's Law Department declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The Mott Haven incident was settled earlier this year, with the city agreeing to pay more than $20,000 each to protesters who were arrested on June 4.

The NYPD was also slapped with a handful of civilian complaints, and a separate lawsuit from the state Attorney General's Office for its response and handling during the Mott Haven protests.