New York Is Said to Settle Suits Over Arrests at 2004 G.O.P. Convention

[Hissyspit]

Source: New York Times

New York Is Said to Settle Suits Over Arrests at 2004 G.O.P. Convention

By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Published: December 23, 2013

The City of New York has agreed to resolve hundreds of federal civil rights claims filed by people who said they were unjustly arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention, according to people familiar with the cases.

- snip -

The arrests led to more than 600 individual claims, of which 112 have been settled. Lawyers also filed a class-action claim covering those who did not file suits.

The agreement would settle all or most remaining lawsuits, and is expected to include payments totaling several million dollars, according to people with knowledge of the cases, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been made public.

- snip -

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly have said repeatedly that the police performed admirably, allowing hundreds of thousands to protest peacefully while guarding against the possibility of vandalism and violence.

Yet there were many critics of the Police Department’s actions: Officers with long orange nets swept up dozens of people at a time, including bicyclists on a raucous ride, people engaged in civil disobedience and passers-by who said that they had no connection to demonstrations.

Last year, a Federal District Court judge ruled that the police had wrongly surrounded and arrested more than 200 marchers on a sidewalk in Lower Manhattan during the convention.

Protesters contended that the mass arrests and prolonged detentions had been calculated to keep them off the streets. Police officials said the many arrests simply overwhelmed the system. On the last day of the convention, a State Supreme Court justice ordered the release of more than 550 of those arrested who had not seen a judge.

Charges against most of the 1,806 people arrested during the convention were dismissed outright or dropped after six months as part of an agreement typical for minor offenses. Of those, about 400 cases were dismissed based on videotape evidence that contradicted the original charges.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/nyregion/new-york-is-said-to-settle-suits-over-arrests-at-2004-gop-convention.html

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Bloomberg drags this out for ten years ( *TEN* YEARS!) and then *I*, the taxpayer....

.... have to pay.

Not Bloomberg, the 30 billion dollar man who ordered the illegal arrests in the first place.

Bloomberg pays *nothing*


What a system.

[loudsue]

2. Exactly - typical republican "justice". They never have to answer for ANYTHING.

This country is so messed up!!!!

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Not to mention:

the salaries of all the city lawyers who had to litigate this for 10 years;

and costs to the court system ( judges salaries, court personnel, crowded dockets, etc.).

If I were di Blasio I'd see if there was any way to make Bloomberg pay-up for this misfeasance/malfeasance.

( He won't, but he should.)

Or simply and very PUBLICLY ask Bloomberg to pay the city back.

(They never answer to anything because they OWN everything.)