Re: Occupy Wall Street WIN
$1.3 million payout OKd to settle Occupy Oakland protesters’ suit
Source:
SF Chronicle
A federal magistrate tentatively approved a $1.3 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by Occupy Oakland protesters who said they were corralled by police outside the downtown YMCA before being unfairly arrested and held in jail for hours.
In signing off on the deal last week, U.S. Magistrate Nathanael Cousins in San Francisco also granted preliminary class-action status, meaning the eight plaintiffs who sued the city of Oakland and Alameda County would share the money with roughly 400 people who allege they were unlawfully arrested on Jan. 28, 2012.
City and county leaders have already approved the payout, the latest in a series of settlements of lawsuits alleging police wrongdoing during mass arrests, court records show. Plaintiffs in the case, however, need to sign off on it before it becomes final.
“It’s the job of Mayor (Libby) Schaaf and the City Council to make sure that the Oakland Police Department understands the basis of this case, and that it requires that the police end the indiscriminate mass arrest of people taking part in a peaceful demonstration,” said Dan Siegel, an attorney for the plaintiffs who ran against Schaaf in last year’s election.
Read more:
$1.3 million payout OKd to settle Occupy Oakland protesters’ suit - SFGate
As with so many peaceful public demonstrations which have been fully documented on this forum - police were the true criminals in this case. Now, as always, it is the taxpayers who have to foot the bill for their crimes. Again, all this can be solved by imposing the payment on the police union, not city taxpayers. If conservatives were as principled as they claim to be they would demand no less.
