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cal04

(41,505 posts)
Mon Apr 30, 2012, 08:34 PM Apr 2012

Occupy protesters in New York, Wisconsin sue over free speech

Last edited Mon Apr 30, 2012, 10:15 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxxi/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1925453/US/Occupy.protesters.in.New.York..Wisconsin.sue.over.free.speech

A flurry of civil rights lawsuits accusing police of stifling free speech of Occupy Wall Street protesters have been filed ahead of a May 1 effort to reinvigorate the movement against economic inequality.

Four members of New York's City Council and others in a lawsuit accused police of using excessive force during protests in New York City, birthplace of the movement against corporate greed.

Their lawsuit, filed on Monday, was among at least three filed in recent days by supporters and protesters from the Occupy movement, which has called for massive demonstrations in New York and elsewhere around the country for Tuesday, the May 1 labor movement holiday in many countries.

The City Council members accused New York police of trampling protesters' rights to assembly and free speech during demonstrations that began on September 17, 2011 but lost momentum after the group was evicted from its encampment in New York's Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011.


Occupy Protesters Sue NYPD For Forcing Them Into Free Speech Cages
http://gothamist.com/2012/04/30/second_ows_lawsuit.php

The big lawsuit filed by City Council members and Occupy Wall Street protesters wasn't the only civil lawsuit filed against the NYPD in federal court today! Another lawsuit, specifically concerning the NYPD's barricading of protesters at a demonstration last November, was filed today, seeking unspecified damages and an injunction stopping the NYPD from engaging in such tactics.

The lawsuit (read it in full below) has to do with a demonstration on November 30th 2011 outside the Sheraton Hotel in midtown, where President Obama was giving a speech at a $1,000-a-head fundraiser. The demonstration was peaceful, but after the protesters arrived near the hotel, they were suddenly penned in by police, told they were in a "frozen zone," and not permitted to leave until after the president departed. "We came to express our views at a place where the President might see us, and were detained for hours as if we had committed a crime," says Buswick resident John Rivera, one of the class action plaintiffs, who was a member of the Civil Service Employees Association.

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Occupy protesters in New York, Wisconsin sue over free speech (Original Post) cal04 Apr 2012 OP
Silly protesters! Speech isn't speech. MONEY is speech. Mister Ed Apr 2012 #1
Spam deleted by OKNancy (MIR Team) hmmy786 May 2012 #2

Mister Ed

(5,896 posts)
1. Silly protesters! Speech isn't speech. MONEY is speech.
Mon Apr 30, 2012, 10:02 PM
Apr 2012

Didn't the Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling make that clear for you?

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