WASHINGTON
Protesters charge gov't
conspiracy
By
Brian Becker
Washington
A
class-action lawsuit charging the U.S. government with a conspiracy to violate
the rights of thousands of demonstrators in Washington last April was filed
on July 27 at the United States District Court here.
The
lawsuit's filing received extensive media coverage in Washington, including
reports on major TV stations and a prominent article in the July 28 Washington
Post.
The
plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the organizations Fifty Years is Enough,
Mobilization for Global Justice, Alliance for Global Justice, International
Action Center, and 12 named individual
plaintiffs.
The
lawsuit will be a class action. That means it will seek damages on behalf of all
those who were arrested, whose offices were broken into, whose property was
confiscated, or who were beaten by
police.
More
than 1,200 people were arrested during the weekend of April 15-17. The arrests
took place at big protests against meetings of the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank and in opposition to the emergence of a prison-industrial
complex.
Lawyers
from the Partnership for Civil Justice, American Civil Liberties Union and
National Lawyers Guild are representing the
plaintiffs.
"We
are filing this lawsuit in advance of the protests scheduled at the Republican
Convention in Philadelphia and the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. The
suit should be a signal to the authorities in those cities not to engage the
same planned and implemented strategy to disrupt the right of dissenters to
exercise their First Amendment right to assemble and protest," said lawyer Mara
Verheyden-Hilliard at a news conference outside the U.S. District Court
Building.
"This
lawsuit claims that federal and D.C. government agencies and officers unlawfully
intimidated and harassed and disrupted the protests of April 15-17," said Arthur
Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU in
Washington.
He
noted that the 113-point complaint shows that the police and government "falsely
portrayed protesters as threatening violence; maliciously closed the protesters'
headquarters for pretextual fire code violations; confiscated protesters'
political literature, banners and medical supplies; wrongfully barred protesters
from demonstrating near the World Bank-IMF meetings; arrested hundreds of
protesters without cause, and used excessive violence against non-violent
demonstrators."
Among
the named plaintiffs in the suit is Larry Holmes, a leader of the April 15 march
to "Shut Down the Prison-Industrial Complex" and "For a New Trial for Mumia
Abu-Jamal."
Police
suppressed that demonstration of more than 1,200 people, sponsored by the
International Action Center. Without warning cops sealed the demonstration area
and arrested 678 people in one of the biggest acts of preventive detention in
recent
history.
Holmes
said in a prepared statement: "The outcome of this lawsuit has far-reaching
implications. We believe that the government and the police have embarked on a
strategy of repression to stop, crush or marginalize the burgeoning progressive
movement that gained world attention in the protests against the World Trade
Organization in Seattle last
year."
Holmes
vowed that "the movement to end the racist death penalty and to win a new trial
for Mumia will get stronger, not weaker, in spite of government
repression."
For
more information about the lawsuit or the upcoming Sept. 25 trial of
demonstrators arrested in April readers can contact the International Action
Center. Call (212) 633-6646, visit the Web site www.iacenter.org or contact the
IAC at 39 W. 14th St., Suite 206, New York, New York 10011. Funds are urgently
needed for this effort.
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