Posted on 11/30/2004 11:18:31 AM PST by TenaciousZ
Portland is set to approve payment of $300,000 to 12 people who claimed police used excessive force during two anti-war marches in March 2003 and during President Bush's visit to Portland in August 2002.
A federal judge spent at least five months mediating the claims, and the City Council is set to approve the settlement Wednesday.
Plaintiffs argued in two lawsuits that the city, Mayor Vera Katz, then-police Chief Mark Kroeker and several officers violated their rights to free speech and free assembly.
They said they were doused by pepper spray at close range and that police fired rubber stingballs into a crowd. They used videotapes to document their claims.
"Our settlements historically have been few and far between in this range," said Mark Stairiker, a claims analyst in the city's Risk Management Division. "It's a big case, but when you divide it by 12, it's fairly routine."
"We hope that getting a settlement of this size will send a message and result in some more accountability than the police have had to date," said Liz Joffe, one of the lawyers representing the group.
The city attorney's office has recommended a settlement to avoid the risk of a large jury award, according to an ordinance before the council.
Political activist Lloyd Marbet was among nine defendants who filed a lawsuit stemming from the Bush visit.
Police clashed with protesters outside the Hilton Hotel as a Republican fund-raiser headlining Bush was getting under way.
Three children there with their parents and a teacher who was hit by pepper spray were among the other plaintiffs.
Their lawyers reviewed more than 100 hours of videotape taken by independent observers and the Police Bureau.
"Several officers testified that protesters were rioting, but the videos showed they were chanting, peaceful protesters," Joffe said. "These officers just showered people in a sea of pepper spray who were doing nothing but chanting."
The city contended that the Bush protesters were sprayed when they "ignored lawful orders to disperse." Yet police commanders and supervisors have acknowledged that they made mistakes and changed tactics when Bush returned for a fund-raiser at the University of Portland the following summer.
"Over the years, we've learned from each and every incident, dating back to the infamous May Day incident" in 2000, when police clashed violently with protesters, Foxworth said. "We continue to look at what worked well and identify areas for improvement."
The next summer, police bused the donors into a fund-raising luncheon at the University of Portland, and set up a large fenced perimeter around the event.
A second suit was brought by William S. Ellis, Randall C. Lyon and Miranda May stemming from anti-war protests on March 20 and March 25, 2003.
According to the complaint, Lyon, an engineer for KATU television news, was struck in the right temple and shoved into his news van by two officers at the demonstration on March 20. It said May, a peaceful protester, was pepper-sprayed at close range and hit in the head on March 25. Ellis, the suit said, was slammed to the ground, assaulted and pepper-sprayed when he refused to identify himself.
Some plaintiffs pledged to donate a portion of their settlements to the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center.
According to the First Amendment, the only unlawful assemblies are those not peaceable. ALL other categorizations of assemblies as unlawful are constructs of activists courts disregarding the plain language of the Constitution.
The videotape found that their assembly was peaceable, so they had the right to be there. They were violently disbanded and assaulted because government no longer respects our right to assemble and protest.
I don't care who these people were or what they were protesting against. The issue is freedom not politics.
No doubt. A $500,000 shortfall two years ago almost shut down Spring sports in the PIL. I'd guess that would have impacted a lot more families than the rioters getting their hush money.
I live in Washington County, BTW, so I won't be paying for this settlement.
Do you live here?
They were blocking entire city streets as well as the MAX trains. I sat in my car for two hours one evening on my drive home because the protestors were closing the streets by "mob rule". They were not letting any traffic pass over the downtown bridges.
Go back to DU, please.
Each state has its own laws on unlawful assembly and failure of disorderly persons to disperse. While I don't know that the laws are in Oregon, the law where I live says: "Failure of disorderly persons to disperse.
(a) A person commits the crime of failure of a disorderly person to disperse if he participates with five or more other persons in a course of disorderly conduct likely to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, and intentionally refuses or fails to disperse when ordered to do so by a peace officer or other public servant lawfully engaged in executing or enforcing the law.
(b) Failure of a disorderly person to disperse is a Class B misdemeanor."
F. the brownshirts for Kerry.
Yup, deduct the cost of your time lost with that of the thousands of other people inconvenienced by these parasites from the 300K.
I'm sure they do. Lots of states have lots of unconstitutional laws.
"A person commits the crime of failure of a disorderly person to disperse if he participates with five or more other persons in a course of disorderly conduct likely to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm"
The constitutional bar has been set at the level of peaceable.
Not orderly, likely to do anything, inconvenience, annoyance or alarm.
Peaceable.
If the people of the United States have a problem with that, they can amend the Constitution.
Lawyers generally receive a smaller cut for "out of court" settlements. Of course if they provided the medical exams, et al, then the clients may still not see much.
Well, if you move to Alabama, I recommend you don't assemble with four or more other people and tie up traffic. One of my cops is likely to arrest you.
Looks nasty;
might make her think twice about doing her little "act up" thing again.
"What is our mission? Free Republic is dedicated to reversing the trend of unconstitutional government expansion and is advocating a complete restoration of our constitutional republic. Listed below are some of the issues we feel strongly about.
Basically, we believe that the Founders designed our system of government in the form of a constitutionally limited republic, with maximum freedom intended for the people and minimum government control or interference into our personal lives and business affairs.
The united states of America was intended to be a federation of sovereign states, each with its own constitution and state government. Governments at all levels -- federal, state and local -- were to be controlled by the people. Our Constitution explicitly restricts the power of our federal government; and our Bill of Rights guarantees that NO government may infringe upon our God given unalienable rights. This is to ensure that the real power remains close to home, with the states, the local governments and always in the hands of the people.
It is not necessary for everyone to hold the same views to be members of Free Republic, however, many of us do share many of the following as common beliefs and goals:
* The preservation and complete restoration of our Constitution and Bill of Rights with special emphasis on the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth and tenth amendments and, of course, our right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness -- free of government intervention. ...
(and look at what Jim thought to include next...)
The Free Press, Free Speech and Copyright Law
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
-- The U.S. Constitution
We, on Free Republic, are determined to speak out against this illegal alliance and to peaceably work toward reestablishing the Constitution as the supreme law of the land as our Founders intended, and to petition our representatives to force the government to operate within its Constitutional limits. We are determined to stand up for our Constitutional rights, for liberty, truth, justice, and the rule of law.
We, the People, are exercising our Constitutional right to freedom of speech and peaceable assembly to demand that our elected representatives fulfill their Constitutional duty.
~~ Jim Robinson, March 1999"
armyavonlady, are you sure you're posting in the right place?
Thank you so much for educating me, since I'm obviously not worthy of posting here. I'll log off now and do some deep soul searching about why I continue to engage in written conversation with someone whose intelligence so far exceeds my own. Consider this your good deed for the day.
My brother is a cop in Portland and you wouldn't believe the Over Time pay the city had to pay to keep these thugs under control. I believe it was over 300K ....
I'm mad also, just glad I don't live in that hole of a town.
Nice "go back to DU" comment. Is that the best you can come up with?
Go back to DU, or if you want to stay at least learn the entire story before posting tsk tsk tsk statements in a thread about Portland. I was a part of this story; were you?
These were not "peaceable" protestors.
We are considering moving across the river, but frankly, Washington isn't much if any better. Good luck to you!
I'll drink a coffee with you on that! it wasn't the first time that happened. There is a REAL reason why the GOP calls this place "little Beruit". They ain't even exagerating!
I honestly can't imagine that the police were spraying and beating up a bunch of "peaceful" protesters. They had to know there were probably armies of lawyers with video cameras out there just waiting for one of them (police) to lose it.
I think it is immoral for someone to get $300,000 for getting beaned in the head or getting pepper sprayed. Did it really cost that much for medical treatment, or is this so that they can just protest every day for the next six years without having to go to work like the rest of us.
No one got $300,000. 12 people are dividing that amount. After Lawyer fees I doubt that anyone gets more then $12,500.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.