Good news for protesters "detained" by police during the Republican National Convention: The City will expunge your fingerprint records. Newsday reports that the NYCLU had complained about the City "routinely" fingerprinting people who were charged with minor offenses, but the City claims they were never going to "retain" the fingerprints - they were just checking to see if people had outstanding warrants or prior arrests. Hmmph. Okay, that makes SOME sense, but Gothamist thinks that the criminals the police might have been interested in were probably committing crime in another borough while the NYPD was concentrated in Manhattan.
In other news, five Critical Mass cyclists are suing the City/NYPD for $1 million - for the NYPD's confiscation of their bikes. Their complaint: They weren't arrested, therefore why did the police need their bikes, which they were n't even on (the bikes were locked to lampposts)? The police had claimed the bikes were abandoned; Gothaimst sees a "quality of life" excuse coming - "The bikes were taking up room from pedestrians" or some such. And you want to talk abandoned bikes? Here are some abandoned bikes.
More on the Republican National Convention and the post-RNC protest protesting.
