Posted on 01/08/2014 11:17:48 AM PST by Theoria
The final costs of settling civil rights lawsuits brought by hundreds of people who were swept up in mass arrests during the 2004 Republican National Convention — many of whom were breaking no laws whatsoever — are likely to be well over $35 million.
That would make the convention lawsuits among the costliest ever defended by New York City.
In a decade of litigation led by the city’s former chief lawyer, Michael A. Cardozo, the Bloomberg administration proved unable to justify the mass arrests made during the last days of August 2004, but was successful in shrouding much of the spying done on political groups by the Police Department’s Intelligence Division.
An agreement, reached by lawyers for the city and those arrested, includes payments on nearly all the outstanding cases of $10,000 to $20,000, plus legal fees, according to four people involved in the negotiations, who insisted on anonymity because they were not supposed to discuss the settlement until it was finalized. While the precise figure will not be announced until next week, those involved said it totaled about $18 million.
That is on top of the money already laid out by the city for the convention lawsuits. By late December, the city had spent $16 million in legal fees defending the cases, and paid another $2.1 million to settle 112 claims.
For all that has been spent, some cases still have not been resolved — and some mystery remains about the exact role of undercover police officers in the surveillance of protesters and activists. The former chief of intelligence for the Police Department, David Cohen, has said the infiltration was necessary because of what he called a “commingled” threat during the convention from civil disobedience and terrorism.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Our nation is beyond broken when a mob of dirty smelly leftists can violently oppose the presidency of George W. Bush and then be given $35 million simply because they were detained by the NYPD.
The first sentence of the article: The final costs of settling civil rights lawsuits brought by hundreds of people who were swept up in mass arrests during the 2004 Republican National Convention — many of whom were breaking no laws whatsoever — are likely to be well over $35 million.
I'm sorry, but arrests aren't supposed to be willy-nilly — in fact, it could be argued that every arrest should be warranted (4th amd).
But, ya got to crack some eggs to make a omelet.
IIRC they were blocking access to the venue.
Bloomberg’s “going away” present to de Blasio.
Of course, de Blasio shouldn’t mind paying as the demonstrations were against the RNC.
“I’m sorry, but arrests aren’t supposed to be willy-nilly —”
__
I agree, but how are out of control crowds supposed to be handled?
.
Then they should have arrested Rove as well for helping to block conservatives from accessing the Republican Convention.
Unfortunately, the dumb cops arrested commuters in suits carrying briefcases who were trying to get to work.
IIRC the Democrats haven’t even paid for their convention in Charlotte ($10 million) from 2012. Duke Energy got stuck with the bill and was permitted to raise rates in the last 6 months allegedly for repairs and improvements but in my mind to pay for the DNC.
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