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<h1>City Agrees To Largest Occupy Wall Street Settlement Ever</h1>
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<span class="cat-date-line3"> <a
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<span class="cat-date-line4">By Nick Pinto, <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2014/06/10/city_agrees_to_largest_occupy_settl.php"
target="_blank">www.gothamist.com</a><br>
June 11th, 2014</span><br>
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<p>During Occupy Wall Street’s heyday in 2011 and 2012, the NYPD <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2011/10/01/breaking_occupy_wall_street_protest.php">made
them</a> pay, <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2011/11/15/nypd_evicts_occupy_wall_street_clea.php#photo-1">again</a>
and <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2011/09/26/nypd_reportedly_targeting_photograp.php">again</a>
and <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2012/02/29/video_police_arrest.php">again,</a>
for exercising their right to assembly and free speech. Nearly
three years later, New York City taxpayers are still paying for
the NYPD’s approach to policing lawful protest. Today, lawyers
announced the largest settlement with New York City yet, with
the city paying out $583,024 to 14 protesters who were arrested
for disorderly conduct on January 1st of 2012.</p>
<p>Sources familiar with today’s settlement said that that the
case was ready to go to trial before <a
href="http://www.gothamist.com/tags/ShiraScheindlin">Judge
Shira Scheindlin</a> until a few months ago, when, while being
deposed for the trial, a senior NYPD official who was present
during the arrests was unable to point out in videos of the
event a single moment when any of the defendants committed any
act of disorderly conduct.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8m2xFteafCQ"
allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" width="580"></iframe></p>
<p>According to the protesters’ complaint, the demonstrators were
part of a march passing through the East Village that night when
police ordered them to disperse.</p>
<p>“This was a constitutionally unlawful order,” said Wylie
Stecklow, a lawyer for the protesters, at a press conference at
City Hall today. “The march was not yet blocking the sidewalk,
and just minutes before this unlawful dispersal order, the
police had ordered the marchers to keep walking.”</p>
<p>Apparently not content with denying a group of citizens their
right to assemble, the police then decided to kettle them for
good measure, surrounding them on 13th Street, preventing them
from leaving, all the while ordering them to disperse. Finally,
the plaintiffs were arrested, charged with disorderly conduct,
thrown into police wagons, and held at the precinct for five
hours before being released with desk appearance tickets.</p>
<p>By the time their cases made it to prosecutors, the D.A.’s
office didn’t think there were grounds to prosecute, so the
charges were dropped. No harm done!</p>
<p>Two of the defendants who settled at an earlier stage will
receive $5,000 from the city. The remaining 12 will receive
$20,002. The protesters’ lawyers will receive $333,000 in costs
and fees.</p>
<p>Today’s settlement comes on top of the <a title="Opens in a
new window"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ows-beating-suit-cost-city-82-000-article-1.1541903"
target="_blank">$82,500 paid</a> to a protester to settle a
suit alleging he was beat up by cops, the $350,000 paid over the
city’s trashing of media equipment <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2013/04/10/thanks_nypd_ows_library_wins_settle.php">and
Occupy’s library</a> during the eviction from Zuccotti Park,
and the <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2012/11/09/3_occupy_wall_street_protesters_win.php">$50,000
paid to three people apparently arrested</a> because police
thought they might have been thinking of attending a protest
later.</p>
<p>The lawsuit over <a
href="http://www.gothamist.com/tags/tonybologna">Anthony
Bologna’s pepper-spraying</a> of kettled young women hasn’t
even been settled yet. (For an even more comprehensive and
dismaying look at how the NYPD handled the Occupy Wall Street
protests, <a title="Opens in a new window"
href="http://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/suppressingprotest.pdf"
target="_blank">take a look at this report</a> released by law
schools at NYU and Fordham.)</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="image-left"><img scale="0"
src="cid:part27.05030804.00080406@comcast.net"
alt="61014presser.jpg" height="274" width="365"><br>
<i style="width: 365px; ;display: block;"> Lawyer David Thompson
of Stecklow, Cohen & Thompson during today’s press
conference (Nick Pinto)</i></div>
<p>The Occupy payouts are still dwarfed by the <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2014/01/15/city_settles_nearly_all_1800_rnc_la.php">$18
million payout</a> the City made to the thousands arrested
during the 2004 RNC.</p>
<p>David Thompson, the lead lawyer for the protesters, said the
settlement is clear evidence that the NYPD needs to change how
it treats political protesters.</p>
<p>“The mass arrest of nonviolent protesters has no place in any
democracy,” Thompson said. “Arresting nonviolent protesters
helps to protect the true wrongdoers, who are the people,
politicians and institutions that have corrupted our economic
and political life. The NYPD pursued a policy of arresting
thousands of people who were doing nothing wrong.”</p>
<p>Payouts to wronged protesters are a start, not an end, Stecklow
said. The city needs to retrain its police force, which is
frequently misinformed and mis-trained when it comes to
understanding the legal circumstances under which they can
restrict protesters free speech rights.</p>
<p>“Occupy was and is a demonstration of the disillusionment and
sorrow that many of us feel about America,” said Jennifer Peat,
a 36-year-old organizer for the Screen Actors Guild, and one of
the plaintiffs in the suit. “Public speech, and the right to
dissent, are core values important for our democracy, and I hope
that this settlement will lead those in power and the NYPD to
better respect our First Amendment rights.”</p>
<p>“We’ve often been seen as out of control, or disorderly,” said
Garrett O’Connor, another plaintiff. “This is a demonstration
that it was quite the opposite. We were out there to send a
message, and our rights were suppressed.”</p>
<p>In a statement, a Law Department spokesperson said, “This
involved a fast-evolving, complicated policing situation
occurring over many hours where only a small fraction of
protesters was arrested. Settlement was in all parties’ best
interest.”</p>
<p><em><a title="Opens in a new window"
href="https://twitter.com/macfathom" target="_blank">Nick
Pinto</a> is a freelance writer who previously wrote about <a
href="http://gothamist.com/2013/10/10/occupys_undercover_shady_ubiquitous.php">Occupy’s
undercover officer</a> for Gothamist. </em></p>
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