Arrested Demonstrators Awarded $1 Million

[IChing]

Source: NBC 4

WASHINGTON --

Protesters arrested during a rally five years ago were awarded $1 million on Wednesday.
In September 2002, 100 people who marched on D.C. to protest the war in Iraq and World Bank policies.
They were arrested. They later sued, claiming their arrests were unlawful.

A judge agreed.

On Wednesday, the judge awarded them monetary damages and threw out their arrests.

The demonstrators claimed police trapped them along Connecticut Avenue, then arrested them.

>>>>snip

Read more: http://www.nbc4.com/news/13801730/detail.html

[Cha]

1. WOOT HOOT!

Score one for Good Guys!

[Barrett808]

2. k & r

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. The war started in 2003. Lazy reporting anyone?

MKJ

[IChing]

6. Protests for global justice: September 27-28, 2002--Washington, DC

Protests for global justice: September 27-28, 2002--Washington, DC


Protests against corporate globalization took place in Washington, D.C., from Monday,
September 23 through Sunday, September 29. Protests on Friday were organized by the
Anti-- Capitalist Convergence who called for a "People's Strike" to shut down the city by
blocking traffic and holding rallies.

On Saturday, Mobilization for Global Justice conducted a march protesting the
annual meetings of the World Bank(WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the worldwide spread of AIDs, and ecological imperialism such as the increasing privatization of
water throughout the developing world.

Sunday's protests included an anti-war march to embassies in D.C.

Friday's protests were marked by mass arrests: 649 people were arrested in what
many are calling illegal arrests. Activists reported brutal treatment by police,
and the Washington Post reported that a number of bystanders, photojournalists,
and other observers were arrested as well.

A photographer for off our backs, who was not participating in the protests
but was standing to the side shooting pictures, was hit by police in the face with a baton.
The officer said she was "too close to the protestors." She received a black eye from the beating.

What follow are personal accounts and commentaries by activists about the protests and police actions.

>>>>>snip about 4 pages of accounts of what happened.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_200211/ai_n9126092/pg_1

[betrue2meonly]

23. Wash. D.C. cops

have been doing this sort of stuff for many years.  And the
general population does not care, which upsets me almost as
the crap the "pigs" pull.  
I was in D.C. protesting Nixon's 2nd inaugeration.  There were
tens of thousands of us there in January of 1973.  
After our rally and long after Nixon's parade, several hundred
of us waited a long time to cross Pennsylvania Av to get back
to our cars, hotel rooms, and in our case, a friend's room at
Georgetown U.  
Across the street from us, preventing our crossing while not
responding to our polite questioning, was a line of cops on a
Cushman motorcycle, cop on a horse, cop on a Cushman, cop on a
horse, as far as you could see in either direction. 
Finally, as it was getting darker, and we were hungry and
cold, the crowed slowly started trickling across Pennsylvania
Av.  The "pigs" let  several dozen cross the street,
and more surged that way.  
There were no objections or warnings from said
"pigs".  
Suddenly, the pigs drew their batons, started the Cushmans and
the horses and charged us like a calvary. 
We ran for our lives, some trapped against the empty
grandstands. 
I had to run up the steps and climb down the verticle back of
it to get away from a cop trying to beat me. I got away. 
Others were not so fortunate. 
Maybe that incident thirty four years ago was the start of
something.  Sounds like they have perfected the techniques .  
Also,the evening news downplayed our huge rally, and depicted
the above incident as a group of "unruly militants"
having causied a disturbance, and the pigs just doing their
job of kicking ass.  

You know, I tell this story, and in 34 years not one person
has acted like they gave a damn about it.  NO one cares our
right to assemble and let our voices be heard is already
destroyed. 
And the MEDIA has been in on it for many years, too.  
What can be done to stop this, and especially in D.C.?   

[LiberalEsto]

34. DC cops are out of control

and have been for many years, along with their buddies, the vicious Capitol police.

I took part in the antiwar May Day protests in DC in 1971. My task was witnessing arrests and bailing out members of my group who got arrested for civil disobedience, but not getting arrested myself.

The DC police went completely nuts that day. I saw a young woman standing at a street curb at DuPont Circle, looking for someone or something up the street. She stepped off the curb for a moment to see better. A DC cop in helmet and riot gear charged up behind her and clubbed her down with a nightstick and started beating her, then dragged her off. He was grinning like a maniac. It wasn't even clear whether she was a protester or just a DC resident or tourist; she could have been looking for a bus or taxi. She didn't do anything illegal.

I almost intervened, though I knew I would get the crap beaten out of me too. But I had a duty to my group to stay free and bail them out so they wouldn't rot in jail after the mass arrests. Cops were rounding up people without making an effort to distinguish protesters from citizens, and beating up people left and right. It was appalling.

I made it back to the church where people from my college were staying, and started making calls to track down the people I was responsible for. Then I drove back to NJ, raised bail money from everyone I saw, drove back to DC, bailed out everyone I could afford to from Occoquan prison in Virginia, and drove them back to NJ. Then I hit up more people for bail donations, drove back to DC, bailed out more people from Occoquan prison, and drove them back to NJ (without any sleep during all this time) and collapsed.

[saigon68]

36. Thugs and Hooligans in uniform

They are cowards who hide behind their badges.

Too bad they are dealing with "non-violent" protesters.

Rather than some union types who could really kick their asses

[benddem]

7. some of us

started demonstrating well before the war started. Don't be such a tight a...

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

9. That's it exactly. There was no Iraq war. This was a group ahead of the times, and they're

given a different name.

MKJ

[Oilwellian]

39. Several of us from DU attended the first anti-Iraq war protest in Oct. 2002

Long before the war began. I went to three protests total and was amazed to see all of the grandmas & grandpas, young couples with children, teenagers, every age possible, in the thousands. In the last protest I attended, there were by then Iraq war veterans, and many veterans from past wars attending as well. It's a totally different crowd this time than the protests of the 60's and early 70's and I'm sure it's put the DC cops in a pickle...take a baton to granny or grandpa? Decisions decisions.

I'm glad to see there are still courts out there willing to protect our right to assemble. Speaking of assembling, September 15th, Washington DC...be there or be square. :D

[Seabiscuit]

40. That's strange. My wife and I attended 2 protest marches and night vigil

in September-October, 2002 right here in San Diego, which is hardly the situs of the vanguard of the anti-Iraq-war movement. It started in September, 2002 with a march of about 1000-2000 people (depending on who you believe) beginning on Broadway Circle downtown - we were holding up signs saying "no blood for oil", etc. The vigil took place at a park near Del Mar Beach in early October, 2002.

[betrue2meonly]

48. Pickled cops...

:hide: I am afraid you give the cops more credit than due. At Nixon's 2nd inaugeration our group of college age folks were surprised that the crowd was at least half were "old" people, in their thirties to sixties. When the cops charged us, we did not have time to check if the cops were only chasing and beating younger folks, too busy hauling ass. My bet is the sadists love beating anyone helpless, the more helpless, the better. That would make grandma and grandpa prime targets... :hide:

[orleans]

19. i think she (BHP) meant nbc should have said the "upcoming" war

in iraq--rather than the war in iraq because there was no war at that time.

[Hekate]

17. In 2002 my town had an abundance of protestors marching to PREVENT the invasion

It started with an impromptu march that grew larger every week. Damn it all to hell, we tried and tried to tell those bastards in Washington that this was a huge mistake.

It is estimated that as many as a million people took part in protests all over the nation -- but would anyone report it? Hell no. I felt like I must be crazy. That's when I finally discovered DU, directed here by MaRadix.

Hm. Not meaning to yell at you personally; it just really hits a sore spot.

Hekate

[pepperbear]

18. it was a foregone conclusion by that time

they were well into the process of making a case for it by the fall of '02.

http://www.motherjones.com/bush_war_timeline/

[mia]

22. Stage officially set on 9/12/2002 "The Iraq Liberation Act "

The "powers that be" capitalized on the grief of our nation on the first anniversary of 9/11. Like clockwork, the plan continued to unfold. Our kinder, gentler nation determined that Iraq needed to be set free.



http://www.policyalmanac.org/world/archive/hgop_iraq_resolution.shtml

<i>The Iraq Liberation Act (P.L. 105–338) expressed the sense of Congress that it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove from power the current Iraqi regime and promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime. On September 12, 2002, President Bush committed the United States to ‘‘work with the United Nations Security Council to meet our common challenge’’ posed by Iraq and to ‘‘work for the necessary resolutions,’’ while also making clear that ‘‘the Security Council resolutions will be enforced, and the just demands of peace and security will be met, or action will be unavoidable’’. The United States is determined to prosecute the war on terrorism and Iraq’s ongoing support for international terrorist groups combined with its development of weapons of mass destruction in direct violation of its obligations under the 1991 cease-fire and other United Nations Security Council resolutions make clear that it is in the national security interests of the United States and in furtherance of the war on terrorism that all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions be enforced, including through the use of force if necessary. </i>

[liberalla]

21. Protests began WAY before the actual "war" did!

Don't you remember? I sure do. We were in Afghanistan and most people were in agreement with that action, but the whole time they were pushing for Iraq. I knew Iraq was a mistake and was against it from the beginning. There was a lot of protest, and as a result I think we delayed the start of the Iraq war. They really wanted to start sooner due to weather considerations-does anyone else remember that? They wanted to avoid the summer heat!

I accidentally pissed off my Mom's good (Repug) friends talking about it. "This guy's gonna' start a war with Iraq!" They were happy - they wanted it! It was my first encounter with an all-out, full blown bushie, and I was speechless. I remember just staring at them with my mouth open. The husband said we didn't need the UN and that it was an outdated organization. I was honestly dumbfounded.

[rucognizant]

29. We marched Oct. 26 2002

In Augusta Me. There were something like 1,500. - 3,000. of us there in an icy rain. I was so overtired, overstimulated, maybe it was the MSG in the Chinese food we had for dinner........as well as the 3 hour drive back home. I couldn't sleep and wound up watching the protest on the Mall in DC, cspan at 2AM.
The same people, that are leading the group then are still going strong! ( My first intro to Medea Benjamin & Code Pink!)
I was onto the scam early on, but then life has a way of tossing dots my way demanding to be connected!~ I can't afford to go far to protest........I can watch cspan. So I have made it my mission to inform as many young people as I can of what is being taken away from them, alnost before they understand what it is they SHOULD HAVE.
My story about being a young stay-at home Mother of 2, 1962, being able to have a weekly cleaning woman AND go to the shore frequent weekends: on my husband's $60.00 per week salary, really hits home to the young single Mothers struggling with 2 jobs........
A very wise friend of mine witha young daughter about to enter college, said to me 20 years ago " You can't miss what you've never had."

[gentlegiant]

44. rucognizant,

"You can't miss what you've never had."

Is a paraphrase of an Allman Brothers lyric, "you can't lose what you never had". I think it's on the "Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas" live album.

[gentlegiant]

43. liberalla,

I'm with you on that. I was telling everyone who would listen that this administration was doing something awfully underhanded. What was the rush? Why couldn't we wait for the UN inspectors to finish their job?
I too ran into some real Bushies. I argued with a couple of family members at our reunion about the false "need" to go to war. They won't discuss it now. They know they were wrong.
I'm not a PR professional, but I studied PR in college. I saw the mechanizations being put in place long before the invasion began. I also studied Arabic in the Navy under Arab instructors. I knew from their history lessons what kind of combat we would face and the determination of those combatants. Even Arab nations with long histories of fighting one another will join together to combat invaders from foreign lands. While there may be allied governments, so many of their nations' people will not be allied. Saudi Arabia is a perfect example of this. The government/royals ally with us, but we are fighting many of their citizens in Iraq.
It fell on deaf ears, much of the time. And I take no satisfaction from having been right. "I told you so" is so petty in the face of the horrors Bushco had brought to our nation.

[Peace Patriot]

25. The Iraq War Resolution was passed only a month later (October 2002), along with

the "Help America Vote For Bush's War Act" (aka, HAVA--fast-tracking all over the country of electronic voting machines run on "trade secret," proprietary programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations). These two acts--the IWR and HAVA--were closely related. Unjust war, and how to shove unjust war down the throats of the American people.

The drumbeat for war on Iraq was being pounded heavily at that time (9/02), just prior to the IWR and HAVA votes (10/02). The Bush Junta was trying to trap Democratic candidates with an "unpatriotic" stance against the invasion of Iraq, just prior to the '02 Congressional elections (11/02). But the drumbeat was never intended to convince anyone--it was rather a covering narrative to create the ILLUSION of majority support. A few months later--Feb. '03-- FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of the American people opposed the Iraq War (just before it was started). Those protesters (in September) were representing the MAJORITY.

56% would be a landslide in a presidential election (and, believe me, it was!)

Of that 56% (56% in NYT poll, 54%-55% in other polls), about half opposed the Iraq War outright, and the other half would only agree if it was a UN peacekeeping mission (international consensus--which the Bush Junta could not obtain). It was to defeat that great peace-minded, justice-minded American MAJORITY--which the warmongers knew would only get bigger--that HAVA was passed (e-voting--with no auditability; no paper to recount; and "trade secret" vote tabulation overall, to defeat the very minimal audits that only the better states required).

Opinion about the Iraq War only went favorable in the few months of the invasion, with U.S. troops at max risk (and some people obviously feeling fearful that a negative answer might get U.S. soldiers killed). The majority was against it before the invasion (the period of the protests in question), and starting in summer '03 opinion against it began its steady rise to the overwhelming 70% opposition today.

The OP narrative can be forgiven for this slightly confused text. The impending Iraq War was VERY BIG in September '02, with the IWR (unjust war) and HAVA (how to enforce unjust war) coming a month later. Once the IWR was passed, war on Iraq was inevitable. And once HAVA was passed, we would never be able to stop it.

That's where we are today. Most of Congress now owes its power to Diebold/ES&S, not to us.

Mission accomplished.

[liberalla]

32. Excellent perspective and summation.

Although the relatedness of IWR and HAVA is understandable, I've never seen it so clearly and succinctly explained and connected. Thank you!

I think you incorporated a portion of the Repug mission statement, too...
Defeating great peace-minded, justice-minded Americans. (paraphrasing)


Re: "Most of Congress now owes its power to Diebold/ES&S"
Have you seen the petition to support Debra Bowen?
http://www.couragecampaign.org/SecureElections

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x479297

:kick:

Thanks again.

[robinlynne]

4. nice.

[thunder rising]

5. Is the tide turning or is it just not rising as fast?

Anyway, I'm glad for the protesters. Thanks for your efforts then and now.

[razors edge]

8. More fiscal irresponsibility from the right.

How much longer will they waste our money breaking the law in order to enforce political obedience?

[Maraya1969]

10. I'm always at the wrong protest!

:)

[Hulk]

11. At least one court room still works in this country.

It's gonna be tough for this admin of goons to install their fascist state with this sort of opposition.

[ProudDad]

12. Think they'll appeal

The D.C. Circuit is the most right-wing in the country...clarence thomas' old court...

They'd probably drop it down to $10 bucks each...

[progressoid]

13. Protesters are just in it for the money

[Turn CO Blue]

14. LOL!

[orleans]

20. yeah, only in it for the money

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We're_Only_in_It_for_the_Money

[Canuckistanian]

33. It can't happen here..... n/t

[progressoid]

35. Damn

I had to sell a stack of albums in the 80's including a bunch of Zappa albums.

Grrrr.

I suppose I thought I needed to eat and pay rent but it still makes me mad.

[burrowowl]

15. About time! I don't know if

they will get anything!

[Cybergata]

16. A victory for Justice!

And I hope the beginning of a new era!

[xchrom]

24. ...

:applause: :woohoo: :applause:

[Vidar]

26. YeeeHaw!

[PuraVidaDreamin]

27. If your out there UHC- John was one of them!

They held out on taking any settlement until
the police agreed to certain new ways on holding
treating demonstrators!

It's quite an interesting story- but off to work

[Lint Head]

28. Fan-Damn-Tastic

:dem:

[LiberalFighter]

30. What did the judge do to keep the police from doing this again?

Or what can be done to keep the police from doing this again?

There needs to be something done that hurts the one responsible.

The individual or individuals that decided to use the tactics of preventing the legal protest.

The individuals that used excessive and unwarranted force on the protesters.

Jail time and removal from the police department.


Setting up a board or panel that would have one or two members present during protests. They would have direct access to the police chief and power to order him to stand down.

But it may be more difficult for law enforcement to use their tactics if protesters utilize modern day tools. Cell phones with picture capability or even newer digital cameras that are slimmer and easier to carry around.


For those that don't know. Digital cameras have about a 1 second delay when the flash is active. Turning flash off prevents the delay. Flash is usually unnecessary when their is daylight.

[gratuitous]

31. Aye, there's the rub

Sure, the million bucks is a nice little reminder, but what can a court really do to restore people's rights? Five years down the line, a paltry monetary award is ordered, but the right to assemble peaceably and petition our government for redress was denied at a crucial time. Can any court, anywhere, turn back the clock and give the citizens their rights back? No. Is a million dollar judgment five years after the fact a small price to pay for subverting our system? Yes, very much so. Is it enough to deter future abridgements of our civil rights? I say no.

I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, but by most measures, this paltry judgment barely addresses the problem, and does nothing to deter the fascist tendencies of certain authoritarian people.

[Lilith Velkor]

37. The police chief was held personally liable for it by another judge in early '04

The cops were sweet as pie to us demonstrators after that.

[dogfacedboy]

38. How long 'til they get the money?

The deal ain't done 'til the check clears.

[dkofos]

41. The new American dream, suing the shit out of police departments

for false arrest and infringing on your rights.

What a great country we live in.

[StarfishG]

42. score one

for the good guys!:patriot:

[redqueen]

45. Better than nothing, I guess...

but it would be nice to have some kind of safeguard instituted to stop this from happening at not just this but MANY OTHER protests. It's a tradition, and it's high time it stopped.

[Duncan]

46. well ALRIGHT!

Thanks for posting the good news.
I needed something to feel good about.

[classysassy]

47. Appeal

the thugs will appeal all the way to the not so supreme courtjesters,and those clowns will dismiss all charges.

[HeraldSquare212]

49. Finally, real money...to cause some pain

In NYC when this happens, the award ends up being a few hundred dollars a piece. Thank God it's becoming real money - maybe now the police will think twice before grabbing up protestors.

[beltanefauve]

50. Many of the individual suits

from the 2004 RNC arrests have started to settle (including my own) and still many other cases have yet to go to trial. The judge (whoever that person is) has yet to certify the class-action suit, though that will be happening "soon". So far, the "rewards" have amounted to more than a few hundred dollars. Still, as an earlier poster stated, it is a poor substitute for false arrest, excessive detention and the curtailment of our civil liberties and First Amendment rights. Also, the onus seems to be on the city of New York, when, although it hasn't been proven as far as I know, I and many others strongly suspect the orders to detain people came from much higher up.