In what some participants from Occupy Wall Street are calling a victory, the City of New York settled a lawsuit on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with individuals whose property was destroyed by the NYPD when it raided the OWS Zuccotti Park encampment on Nov. 15, 2011.
The city will now have to pay over $365,000 in the settlement, which includes $47,000 for the destruction of the 5,500 books from "The People's Library" and $75,000 for the destruction of property belonging to Global Revolutions TV, a live-streaming media group that was active in the park.
Most of the settlement will pay for the lawyers the group had to hire for the suit.
"Our clients are pleased," the Village Voice reports Normal Siegel, who represented Occupy Wall Street in the suit, as saying. "We had asked for damages of $47,000 for the books and the computers, and we got $47,000. More important--we would not have settled without this--is the language in the settlement. This was not just about money, it was about constitutional rights and the destruction of books."
"By targeting equipment used for media as well as literature in the peoples library, the city in effect not only tried to deny our movement a place to gather and organize, but also went after the tools we use to communicate in direct violation of our First Amendment rights” said Vlad Teichberg of Global Revolution TV.
Today we declare VICTORY against the city's violent & destructive eviction. 260 Madison Ave, 22nd floor, 11am. #OWS
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) April 10, 2013
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