Forum Post: Court Victories For Freedom
Posted 9 years ago on April 1, 2015, 7:35 p.m. EST by gsw
(3420)
from Woodbridge Township, NJ
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Some late Vindication in court for OWS
“By ordering protesters to leave the entire Wall Street area, police violated protesters’ First Amendment right to carry their message directly to its intended recipients: the Wall Street bankers who bankroll climate change,” Judge Mandelbaum said in his decision
http://firedoglake.com/2015/03/28/how-the-flood-wall-street-trial-changed-the-game-of-policing/
This landmark decision could not only have resounding implications for the growing environmental justice movement — it could also potentially thaw the iron-fisted policing that has come to be routine in the United States, especially in New York.
“The importance of judicial notice is that the judge accepted climate change and the need to do something about it as a fact without the necessity of any evidentiary support or proof at trial,” Martin Stolar, an attorney for the defense, told MintPress News. “To the best of my knowledge, this is unprecedented and has significance for future litigation involving climate change.”
Councilman snags $30K settlement in Occupy Wall Street lawsuit http://nypost.com/2015/03/27/councilman-snags-30k-settlement-in-occupy-wall-street-lawsuit/
Calling barricades and “free speech zones” into question http://firedoglake.com/2015/03/28/how-the-flood-wall-street-trial-changed-the-game-of-policing/
The NYPD has often used “free speech zones” to confine demonstrations to a barricaded area. A study of Occupy Wall Street protests published in 2013 by the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law documented dozens of instances of police misconduct, use of excessive force, arbitrary restrictions and street closures – as they had done on Sept. 22, 2014, when they prevented Flood Wall Street from getting to Wall Street. Numbering in the thousands, police blocked the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street, where 102 people were arrested after refusing to leave.
Telling protesters where to protest has caused consternation, but it hasn’t been challenged in court. By taking their case to trial, the case of the Flood Wall Street Ten may have put a legal dent in the use of barricades. And it may force the NYPD think twice before making decisions in the street that won’t hold up in court.
Defense Attorney Jonathan Wallace successfully argued that Flood Wall Street protesters were denied the right to decide where to demonstrate, for how long, and whom to talk to – all in violation of the protesters’ constitutional rights.
Occupy Wall Street Legacy http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/opinion/blow-occupy-wall-street-legacy.html
Councilman snags $30K settlement in Occupy Wall Street lawsuit http://nypost.com/2015/03/27/councilman-snags-30k-settlement-in-occupy-wall-street-lawsuit/
Open occupywallsttreet.org. Charge $10 a year. Set rules. People who violate would get booted, then would need to pay double to rejoin.