NYC officials sue NYPD over Occupy Wall Street handling

Occupy Wall Street protesters are arrested by New York City police officers during a demonstration across the street from the New York Stock Exchange on April 13, 2012 in New York City. / Getty Images

(AP) NEW YORK - Four lawmakers sued the city Monday over its handling of the Occupy Wall Street protests, saying police conduct is so problematic that the force needs an outside monitor.

The city and police violated demonstrators' free speech rights, used excessive force, arrested protesters on dubious charges and interfered with journalists' and council members' efforts to observe what was going on, the four City Council members and others say in the federal civil rights suit.

"This unlawful conduct has been undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring and retaliating against (the) plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected protest activity," says the suit, which was filed a day before Occupy and labor activists planned a large May Day march.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended police handling of the protests.

"This police department knows how to control crowds without excessive force. . They do allow you to protest, but they don't let it get out of hand," he said after some council members complained about what they called police brutality at a March Occupy demonstration.

While Occupy activists have gone to court before over particular episodes in the movement's contentious history with the city, the new lawsuit is a nearly 150-page compendium of complaints, amplified by the council members' participation. A local Democratic Party official, freelance journalists and Occupy activists also are plaintiffs.

Their criticisms range from a police official's much-discussed use of pepper spray on penned-in protesters in September to the temporary removal of demonstrators from Manhattan's Union Square in March.

City council members and other elected officials have sued the city before — over a Bloomberg-led 2009 change to term limits, among other things.

Still, the council members' involvement in the Occupy suit helps dramatize its argument that police oversight is so ineffective it warrants a court-appointed monitor. The officials want an independent eye to review all of the more than 2,000 Occupy-related arrests and to explore the sometime closures of Zuccotti Park and some other public spaces.

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The four lawmakers — Letitia James, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams — said they felt they needed to pursue avenues beyond City Hall to address their growing concern.

"We need accountability, we need relief . and we're not going to just sit idly by," Williams said.

He and Mark-Viverito were among dozens of people who calmly sat down in a roadway near the Brooklyn Bridge during a Nov. 17 demonstration. Their disorderly conduct cases are on track to be dismissed if they avoid rearrest.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, was accused of resisting arrest while trying to get to the protesters' encampment in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park as police uprooted them Nov. 15. He emerged with visible scrapes to his head and said police assaulted him. Prosecutors recently dropped the charges against the councilman, saying they couldn't secure the testimony of a key officer in the incident.

"I feel that the NYPD misused its powers," he said.

Some state legislators also have proposed an independent inspector for the New York Police Department, citing the Occupy protests and other issues.

The lawsuit, crafted by attorneys Leo Glickman, Yetta Kurland and Wylie Stecklow, also seeks unspecified damages and court orders about access to public spaces and other issues in the case.

The lawsuit was filed the same day as another lawsuit by five individuals who said their constitutional rights were violated when police officers kept them inside an area surrounded by metal barricades for nearly two hours on Nov. 30 as they tried to participate in an Occupy Wall Street demonstration. The lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan sought unspecified damages and class action status.

The city Law Department said Monday it had not yet seen either lawsuit and was awaiting an opportunity to review each.

25 Photos

Occupy protests: Month 7

[amerilatino]

This is a country that nurtures and empowers everything but what it's constitution says it does. It preaches that all men are created equal, yet has espoused slavery, hatred and discrimination in every way, shape or form, and continues to do so surrepticiously. It preaches freedom of assembly yet gasses, shoots and batons those who gather publically to question the status quo when it hurts them. It preaches freedom of expression yet allows businessmen to indenture the expressions of their employees and to threaten their livelihood when what the hired help say on their free time doesn't suit their fancy. It preaches freedom from unwarranted search and seizure but allows policemen to destroy a person's property and take his/her freedom on suspicions of criminality based on one's linguistic ability, heritage or the color of one's skin. It preaches freedom of religion but allows school districts to insinuate religious teachings that we do not wish to teach our children on them through the biased altering of schoolbooks on subjects such as science and history. Although I was born in NYC, I have lived/worked in so-called "poor" countries where people responsibly enjoy more freedoms than most Americans ever will, and these countries are getting stronger. Yes, I am a dissappointed repatriate, and the only reason I came back is money, and no, I will not let the door hit me on my backside when I finally have enough of it to leave again.

[stormerF69]

Time to replace some NYC Officals,when the biggest and best police force in the world has to defend its self against their own city officals for maintaining law and order.It is time for the bedweters to be sent packing,the police have a hard enough job with out the petty officals butting in.

[Molly-Pchr]

Liberals and police: cats and dogs.

[enlightenu]

cats and pigs

[Fox_Rush_Zombie]

Hooray for these four honest patriots!!

May 1, 2012... let the 'American Spring' begin!!

[Molly-Pchr]

Yeah, look where the Arab spring got Egypt.

[davidd5063]

Anyone expecting justice from "the courts" is apparently under some delussion that any of the GOP appointed filth in the courts have integrity - no one in the GOP has integrity - you can't lie constantly because the truth makes you look like a self-serving piece of filth and then claim to have "integrity".

[Molly-Pchr]

another brainwashed liberal

[lonestar9000]

The Occupy people are trying to mess with the money. That's not going to happen. Even if it means killing, these people are not going to be allowed to change Wall Street or corporate America. They will be met with force wherever they appear, court orders and monitors be damned.

[davidd5063]

If they're smart, they'll realize this and come ready to rumble. The inherited wealth filth never fear until they see rioters standing up to their paid thugs.

[smittyc]

Well I agree with Mayor Bloomberg. Further, I feel sorry for the NYPD, they get stuck with all the dirty work. The least the protesters could do is show some basic courtesy, wear clean clothes, take a shower, use some deodorant and brush their teeth. But no, they show up at the protest smelling like two week old garbage and looking like a bunch of hobos in rags, commit rapes and robberies on their fellow protesters who then demand the police protect them from each other.

[Ourdoc1]

Michael Bloomberg needs to be sent to Gitmo, he is a terrorist.

[tempest112]

Social Media and the Write-In Ballot. We do not need Party Politics! We have the right to Write-In the names of individuals during Election 2012. Send a real message to Washington D.C. Lead America in electting true representation of the People, by the People and for the People. http://writeinvote2012.wordpress.com/

[Romneys_toupee]

Take your tea party rhetoric elsewhere.

[tempest112]

Local, State, and Federal Government and their agency represent the top 1%. Much of the Media reports only when they perceive that reporting the story helps circulation. For America Election 2012 is a chance for Occupy and other reform minded groups to lead real change. Join me at http://writeinvote2012.wordpress.com Its time to fire congress and support individuals of honesty, integrity, common sense and compassion to replace the puppets in Washington D.C.