Oakland Police Department: City May Pay $1M to Protesters

Oakland Police Department: City May Pay $1M to Protesters

www.huffingtonpost.com

The City of Oakland has agreed to pay approximately $1 million to end a lawsuit filed on behalf of 150 demonstrators alleging police misconduct in their 2010 mass arrest.

The preliminary settlement approved by a federal judge ends the class-action lawsuit filed by the National Lawyers Guild on behalf of 150 people arrested but not charged with a crime during a protest in November 2010. The protest followed the sentencing of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of Oscar Grant, which the demonstrators complained was unacceptably light.

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There's been a bit of a discussion about treatment of protesters by those in positions of authority on ATS as of late. One of these tactics has been mass arrests that don't necessarily amount to charges and this lawsuit is in response to one of these mass arrests, with the issue being resolved nearly 3 years later.

The thing that troubles me about this is that these kind of mass arrests were also occurring in other protests around the nation, where sometimes hundreds would be arrested and left to sit on a bus for hours only to face no charges. In this specific case, the demonstration was legal and approved but this tactic at quelling dissent still occurred regardless of its legality. It'll be interesting to see if the more spontaneously planned protests that also incurred these kind of arrests will get a similar settlement or not. It's troubling because it would seem to me that an ounce of prevention or tolerance would likely make the city's bill a little lighter at the end of the day.

Another thought on the matter is that, in the specific Occupy protest that is also mentioned in the article, there were reports following it that the City Of Oakland had spent $1M to basically get the protest to disperse. Should this case also end up with a million dollar settlement, then the question I ask is, if the First Amendment states that people "have the right to peaceably assemble for the purpose of petitioning Congress for the redress of their grievances", then why is it that so much money ends up being spent either in settlement, overtime wages, and tear gas, helicopters and rubber bullets or a combination of all of the above when another alternative is to just let them assemble and save that stuff for instances should violence actually break out. Doing otherwise doesn't seem entirely fiscally responsible nor does it seem socially responsible for that matter.

www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Also pertinent to the discussion is, for this particular city, the history of issues with the Oakland Police department, which have been substantial enough to risk federal oversight:
www.npr.org...
www.ktvu.com...

reply to post by WhiteAlice

i really hope they don't take that money and make this as painful as possible for the city and all the police involved.

Awesome everyone gets a real object lesson here mostly the protestors:

1 million less

Attorney fees of the Guild unless they went 'pro bono'
Court costs unless the city pays them.
Split 150 ways
Less 35% for federal taxes
What ever the going rate for California's state income tax is

Which most will be leaving with

Think my calculator is messed up coz thats 6,660ish grand a piece(150) before all those fees if any.

YEA what a 'victory"!

Bad police!

Originally posted by neo96
Awesome everyone gets a real object lesson here mostly the protestors:

1 million less

Attorney feeds of the Guild unless they went 'pro bono'
Court costs unless the city pays them.
Split 150 ways
Less 35% for federal taxes
What ever the going rate for California's state income tax is

Which most will be leaving with

Think my calculator is messed up coz thats 6,660ish grand a piece(150) before all those fees if any.

YEA what a 'victory"!

Bad police!

edit on 1-7-2013 by neo96 because: (no reason given)

I got $6666.67 a piece as well so you didn't screw up your math and calculator is fine. Think the reason why it looks weird is because it makes $1m seem so small, lol. Odds are, based on general tax laws, it'd be taxed at whatever bracket the recipient happens to be within after the inclusion of the settlement income. Forgive me for that. Accountant here, lol. I'd say that, odds are, they didn't sue for the money so I think that it's not so much a victory per person but it should be a sting to the city at least.

Not sure what else they could've done as the irony is that the second protest, with the critical injury, was in response to police brutality at the eviction that morning. So we're looking at a brutality suit for a protest that was due to brutality. So protesting police responses to protests by a protest doesn't necessarily work either. I feel like a political Dr. Seuss now.

reply to post by WhiteAlice

Not sure what else they could've done

Go big or stay at yee olde homestead as my pappy always use to say.

Hold out for a bigger payday

About a million per 150 is what they should be settling for nothing less after taxes and fees.'

If they are gonna do it DO IT RIGHT.