NEW YORK - Civil rights lawyers on Wednesday sued
the New York Police Department on behalf of 52 people arrested
at an anti-war protest, the latest in a series of lawsuits
nationwide challenging police conduct at rallies opposing the
U.S.-led war on Iraq.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court charged the
NYPD "unlawfully arrested peaceful protesters and detained them
for excessively long periods" after the April 7, 2003, rally
outside an investment bank they accused of war profiteering.
A spokeswoman for the city's law department said counsel
had not yet read the legal papers, but "will be reviewing them
thoroughly" when they do.
Center for Constitutional Rights lawyers said their
lawsuit, which charged the police with violating free speech
rights, was also filed with an eye to demonstrations planned
for the Republican National Convention in New York in August.
"We believe these arrests and detentions were part of a
nationwide pattern ... a concerted effort to keep people off
the streets and deter people who would protest from coming
out," lawyer Nancy Chang said.
"We don't want to live in a country where people do not
feel free to express themselves," Chang said.
The suit was filed a day after U.S. prosecutors in Iowa
dropped subpoenas issued last week ordering anti-war activists
to testify before a grand jury. Under pressure from civil
liberties advocates, a subpoena was also withdrawn on Drake
University to provide information on a campus anti-war forum.
Chang said civil rights groups had filed lawsuits against
authorities over police handling of anti-war rallies in cities
such as Oakland, California, Washington and Seattle.
CIVIL LIBERTIES DEBATE
These and other cases are part of a raging debate over
civil liberties as the Bush administration fights its war on
terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America. Law
enforcement officials, free speech advocates and courts have
all acknowledged the attacks and the U.S. war on Iraq created a
different atmosphere for policing and security.
At the April demonstration in New York, an ad hoc group of
activists called "M27 Coalition" rallied outside an affiliate
of the Carlyle Group, which has ties to the defense industry.
Officers arrested the activists, who said they followed
police guidelines for the sidewalk demonstration. Some were
held for up to 12 hours, but disorderly conduct charges were
dismissed against the 52 named in Wednesday's lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary compensation and a
declaration that police actions were "retaliatory and
unconstitutional."
New York activists organized one of the largest anti-war
demonstrations on Feb. 15, 2003, when hundreds of thousands
took to the streets five weeks before the U.S. and British
invasion of Iraq over its purported stockpiles of weapons of
mass destruction. No weapons stockpiles have been found.
© Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd
###
