Dubai Debt Issues Push Stocks Down
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
Family Gets Early Christmas Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
The city spent five years and an estimated $1 million, give or take, fighting off a lawsuit brought by a group of 52 activists who were arrested en masse during an Iraq war protest in April 2003 outside the offices of the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with ties to the Bush family and major holdings in the military-defense sector. And that “bonfire of legal expenses,” as the Times puts it, is just the cherry on top of the $2,007,000 settlement that will now be paid by the city to end the suit.
Though the NYPD insists that the protesters where blocking a Midtown sidewalk during the demonstration, videos from that day (including one taken by the NYPD) show a different scene, with protestors lined along the sidewalk – with ample space for pedestrians – being arrested without any police warning or opportunity to leave. Charges against fifty of the activists were dismissed; two were acquitted. Ahmad Shirazi, a 70-year-old film editor, vividly describes the incident:
“All of a sudden, from the Fifth Avenue side, a huge number of police officers entered 56th Street. The protest was on the south side of the street. We were standing on the north side of the street. They came directly to us, they were in riot gear, and they surrounded us. They made a semicircle around us, shoulder to shoulder, with their batons.” Mr. Shirazi said that as he was being handcuffed for the first time in his life, he told the officer that the plastic cuffs were squeezing him. “He said, ‘You should have thought about that before you came out this morning.’ It was like a dagger in my heart, that a police officer of my city would come up with anything like that.”The Post reports arrestees will get about $18,000 each after legal fees. And their lawyers point out that the police tactics used that day – indiscriminately rounding up demonstrators and detaining them for over 24 hours while “processing” them – became the model used by the NYPD during the 2004 Republican National Convention held in New York; those lawsuits are still winding their way through the courts.
Sarah Kunstler, an attorney and filmmaker who is the daughter of the late William Kunstler and was also arrested that day, says, “We hope our victory helps convince the city to stop violating people's rights as a matter of policy and stop wasting taxpayers' money doing so.” But the NYPD is currently consulting with police departments in Denver and Minneapolis on their plans for the 2008 Democratic and Republican Conventions. And a lawyer for the city maintains the NYPD did nothing wrong: “This settlement was reached without any admission of liability on behalf of the city and the individual defendants.”
Photo courtesy J.L. McVay/StereoactiveNYC
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Just great, the 52 detainees make $18,000 each for their 24 hours of "hell." Meanwhile the scumball lawyers make $1,071,000. Nice.
Revolution 2009
No more wasted taxpayer money on bogus and brutal police tactics!
I'm guessing that 1.071 million is for the five years of work that the attorneys put into the case, Snoopy. There are a lot of scumball attorneys out there, but you can't expect the others to not get paid for their time.
There are a lot of scumball attorneys out there, but you can't expect the others to not get paid for their time.
I'll argue the other side of this for fun. If the best you can do is $18,000 per member of the class AND not even get a verdict or admission of wrongdoing then maybe you shouldn't have bothered at all. It's like a class action where the lawyers make millions and I get a coupon for a future purchase. If I had real damages I would just have sued on my own.
We're facing budget shortfalls in the billions, but our government can't figure out how to trim the budget... so we're looking at higher taxes and declining service, meanwhile a group of protestors are getting $18,000 each for getting arrested for a day?
A dagger in my heart, indeed.
Hopefully the protestors decide to donate their $18,000 to help groups hurt by budget shortfalls.
As a taxpayer, these payouts are really starting to tee me off, but let's put the blame on the police where it is deserved.
If the police were not constantly allowed to overstep their authority they would not be facing all of these suits. Maybe all of this money should come out of their pension fund, then watch how quickly they shape up.
Please stop wasting tax dollars.
how much of the budget is towards the NYPD fighting these cases? how bout have them trim their budget??
EastRiver, even if they got $0.00 they should sue, the NYPigD has been out of control & maybe when the people realize how much $ is being wasted as a result, someone will tell them to tone it down.
i think that the $ should start coming out of the NYPigD pension fund, that would make them behave.
It's once upon a time Republican Bloomberg who allow the Police tactics with his Police Commissioner Kelly. They should be called on the carpet for their policies. But it looks like Bloomberg is eyeing Albany while Kelly wants to step into City Hall.
I'm not saying the police were right to arrest the protestors-- there was no finding of fact one way or the other, as the case was settled.
Assuming the police were wrong, the correct action is to reprimand the police who were involved, train them to the correct standard (or terminate them if the conduct supports it), and compensate the people involved for what took place. $18,000 for getting arrested at a protest rally is excessive.
Jury duty pays about $40 a day. I think $100 a day for wrongful arrest would be adequate under the circumstances.
Instead, what do we get?
Some plaintiff's lawyers get $1m in legal fees.
Our city attorneys wasted time and money on defending this case, instead of dealing with more important issues.
The cops involved are in a union, and nothing happens to them.
A handful of protestors get a nice payday for being inconvenienced.
Taxpayers who had nothing to do with this get to foot the bill. We don't feel it directly, since the portion of our taxes to pay for this might just come to a dollar or so per taxpayer. But the $2m is real money, money that could have been spent in a way that would actually benefit us.
Next time there's a rally, let me know. I might as well join in... maybe I'll win the lottery, get arrested and a nice settlement check.
I like the pension fund idea. There needs to be more personal accountability for this kind of wrongdoing.
Maybe cops should be required to have malpractice insurance, just like doctors and lawyers. If a cop does something deemed inappropriate, his individual rates could be increased.
>If the police were not constantly allowed to overstep their authority they would not be facing all of these suits. Maybe all of this money should come out of their pension fund, then watch how quickly they shape up.
HEAR! HEAR! NY'er!
REVOLUTION 2009!!!
And a lawyer for the city maintains the NYPD did nothing wrong: “This settlement was reached without any admission of liability on behalf of the city and the individual defendants.”
The NYPD: operating under one big case of denial.
Maybe cops should be required to have malpractice insurance, just like doctors and lawyers. If a cop does something deemed inappropriate, his individual rates could be increased.
Rookie cops are paid miserable wages. That's just a fact. The idea that the policing problems of this city lie with individual bad apples is a fairy tale that the NYPD Foundation, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the bankrupt Civilian Complaint Review Board would love you to keep on believing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Complaint_Review_Board
no underwriter would insure the NYPD.
the city is self-insured like most municipalities.
@sinisterteashop
Like I said Bloomberg and Kelly should be held accountable for their policies. Voters can hold them accountable by voting them out. I don't see this happening though as polls show voters giving Bloomberg high ratings. I guess those ratings reflect the public's satisfaction with his bean counting.
The fallout from these sorts of police actions is more than monetary. The institutionalized of police brutality that has taken place in NYC since 9/11 has a civic fallout. People are afraid to speak out. I know I won't go to a demo in NYC because I'd wind up in jail for exercising my constitutional rights.
As long as the police report said so...
I know I won't go to a demo in NYC because I'd wind up in jail for exercising my constitutional rights.
You wouldn't go to jail. It's still relatively easy NOT to get arrested in demos.
So here's the skinny: The bean counters figure that it's easier to pay the money later than be inconvenienced by something as quaint as Constitutionally guaranteed rights. No problem - just give the bully cops more reasons to "arrest" people just to get them off the street. A real federal prosecutor under a real administration would go after the cops for what they did - lawsuit or no lawsuit.
See any similarities with the Bejing Olympics protests?
Anyone know how much the F'in pigs have cost us since 2000? It's not a rhetorical question I'm actually asking.
If they'd act as police officers instead of pigs then valuable dollars and resources wouldn't be wasted.
I could imagine every pig arresting those protesters that day was being an arrogant patriot, offended that someone didn't agree with the decision to invade Iraq. Hope they at least regret how wrong and dumb they are.
Same goes for the convention. Dark cloud over Bloomberg on an otherwise well done job.
A lot of these cops were just doing their job, and I don't blame them personally, in general. These officers didn't meet before lunch one day and say, "I hear there's going to be a protest in Midtown. Wanna go round up some dirty fucking hippies?"
My question is, who, exactly, gave a shit that people were protesting the Carlyle Group? Who gave the order and said, "I don't care how many people are down there, I don't care what they are doing, you guys go round 'em up." That's the guy that should be fired and paying the $2 million.
If the police really want to put an end to these demos, all they have to do is keep the TV cameras away. Those protesters will just leave quietly in disgust.
I love the lies by the City Attorney. Sorry, you don't pay out $2 million if you thought you were going to win. Its more like "we settled this because we have a dozen more of the same coming down the pipeline because of the RNC convention, Critical Mass, police brutality, etc...".
Suing the police is becoming like taking candy from a fat corrupt baby who doesn't stop whining.