New Federal Lawsuit Filed Against NYPD for Occupy Arrests – PCJF Challenges Unlawful Police Tactics

Occupy Wall Street ‏@OccupyWallStNYC

From @InterOcc: New Federal Lawsuit Filed Against NYPD for Occupy Arrests PCJF Challenges Unlawful Police Tactics, ... http://ow.ly/2srIW1

http://interoccupy.net/blog/federal-lawsuit-nypd/

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) has filed a federal lawsuit on September 20th, 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the New York Police Department’s use of sidewalk arrests in which persons are targeted for false arrest based on their association with or proximity to dissent and protest. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of individuals who were falsely arrested on September 24, 2011 in the first week of the Occupy Wall Street movement, including one plaintiff who was subject to Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna’s notorious pepper spray attack on peaceful demonstrators.

The lawsuit, Sterling, et al. v. City of New York, et.al., Case No. 12-CV-7086 seeks to end the New York City police tactics of arresting people lawfully present on city sidewalks and the use of orange netting and police lines to conduct indiscriminate group arrests. The lawsuit also seeks compensatory and punitive damages against NYPD officers for the false arrests and Deputy Inspector Bologna for the pepper spray assault.

“It is evident from the mass use of illegal sidewalks arrests executed yet again this weekend during OWS demonstrations that this is an unlawful tactic the NYPD will use over and over again until a Judge declares this tactic to be unconstitutional,” stated Carl Messineo, Legal Director of the PCJF. “With this lawsuit, protestors are taking the offensive to stop it.”

(More, gloriously more at the link.)