Coastal Post Online
MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS
MONTHLY - FREE PRESS
(415)868-1600 -
(415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924
|
|
DC Settles With Mass Arrest Victims
Seven Rounded Up in 2002 IMF Protest to Get $425,000 And An Apology
By Carol D. Leonnig and Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post
Staff Writers
The District government agreed yesterday to pay a total of $425,000 to seven
people caught up in a mass arrest at a downtown park in September 2002,
acknowledging that they were wrongfully arrested and promising to adopt changes
in police procedures.
The agreement settles a lawsuit in which the seven alleged that DC police
violated their constitutional rights and department policy during the roundup
of about 400 protesters and bystanders in Pershing Park. The settlement also requires DC
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey to send a personal letter of apology to each of
the plaintiffs.
The monetary award raised questions about the settlement's effect on three
lawsuits that make similar claims against the city, including a class-action
suit filed on behalf of all 400 people arrested that day.
"It's too bad the taxpayers have to pay for the wrongful actions of our
police department," said DC Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who
issued an investigative report last year that said Ramsey and other police
officials had conspired to cover up evidence of wrongdoing during the mass
arrest.
"What do you pay people for taking away their liberty for 24 hours, 36
hours? I think we're probably looking at the city paying out another huge
amount of money."
Ramsey said yesterday that city attorneys have instructed him not to comment
on the settlement because of the ongoing litigation.
The arrests occurred Sept.
27, 2002, during
demonstrations against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. With
Ramsey's approval, Assistant Police Chief Peter J. Newsham ordered officers to
corral demonstrators and anyone else within the boundaries of the park, on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and to charge them with failing to
obey police. Those arrested were put in plastic handcuffs, taken away on buses
and detained on floors for as long as 36 hours.
A subsequent internal investigation by police, made public by a federal
judge in September 2003, found that Newsham never gave an order for the crowd
to disperse and that police, therefore, had no justification for making the
arrests.
In approving the settlement with the seven plaintiffs at a hearing
yesterday, US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan hailed the deal as
"historic," noting that it marked a major turnabout by city officials
in accepting blame and offering to make amends for the police actions.