I live in the Portland metro area and I am pissed. These jerks were protesting without permits and TROUNCING all over everyone elses civil rights! And now the city is going to PAY them!!!????! Darn it all to hell this city and state in general is so screwed up,they are staring at the backs of their own throats from the inside(wink/nod)! Those protestors DESERVED what they got. THEY were the one's BREAKING THE LAW!!!! Katz is an IDIOT to settle this, the protesters should be cleaning the medians of the freeways in community service to learn that civil rights DO NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO BREAK THE LAW!!!!!!! If they want so bad to exercise their rights, THEN RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF EVERYONE ELSE AS WELL!!!! Bloody hippocrit/liberal/dims. Katz, liberal dim that she is, REWARDS them!!!!!! This stinks to high heaven.
While the settlement may outrage you, I suspect it was simply a business decision. With 12 plaintiffs, the cost of taking the case even close to trial, let alone to trial, would far exceed the settlement cost. I know people shouldn't be rewarded for bad behavior, but it was cheaper for the city to do this than to stand on principle and have to explain the potentially staggering defense costs.
"These jerks were protesting without permits"
"Those protestors DESERVED what they got. "
While I might agree that these folks are a bunch of lefty losers, you don't need a permit to protest, and no one deserves to be hit, pushed, and peppersprayed by the police for chanting Anti-Bush (or anti-anything) slogans when someone they don't like comes to town.
Let's be careful not to be so hasty to pooh-pooh the rights of those with whom we disagree. Remember, the shoe might be on the other foot next time, and it might be those protesting a left-wing regime who get beat up and peppersprayed. Rights to peaceful assembly and free speech protect us all.
I suggest that the reason that this was settled was because a jury would have given these people far more, and the City knew it. Next time, maybe the police shouldn't be so overzealous in their use of truncheons and pepperspray, and things like this would not happen. If I were you, and it were my tax dollars going to these stupid protesters, I'd be pissed too...but not at the protestors, at the police!
Rights don't require permits.
Amendment I: "Congress shall make no law...abridging...the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
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.
Just imagine what the city is paying in lawyer, etc fees. I bet the city is picking up the tab for the plaintiffs' lawyers and I bet the total is 10x the $300,000 quoted here.