Occupy Enlists Army of Lawyers to Sue Over ‘Free Speech Violations’
- Posted on December 23, 2011 at 11:58am by
Becket Adams
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Although most major Occupy encampments have dispersed, the movement‘s organizers are trying to stay relevant through a flurry of lawsuits in which they are asserting their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly and challenging authorities’ mass arrests and use of force to break up tent cities.
Lawyers representing protesters have filed lawsuits — or are planning them — in state and federal courts from coast to coast, challenging eviction orders and what they call heavy-handed police tactics and the banning of demonstrators from public properties.
Some say the fundamental right of protest has been criminalized in places, with protesters facing arrest and charges while doing nothing more than exercising protected rights to demonstrate.
“When I think about the tents as an expression of the First Amendment here, I compare it to Tahrir Square in Egypt,” said Carol Sobel, co-chairwoman of the National Lawyers Guild’s Mass Defense Committee.
Pictured: Tahrir Square (above) and Zuccotti Park (below)
“Our government is outraged when military forces and those governments come down on the demonstrators. But they won’t extend the same rights in this country,” she said. “They praise that as a fight for democracy, the values we treasure. It comes here and these people are riffraff.”
Public officials and police unions have generally defended moves to break up the camps, citing health and safety concerns. They also said that responding to problems at Occupy encampments was draining crime-fighting resources.
Protester lawsuits are now beginning to wend their way through the legal system, and attorneys say more are likely on the way.
The ACLU of Northern California sued the Oakland Police Department in federal court in November, saying police and other agencies violated demonstrators’ Fourth Amendment rights by using excessive force—including “flash-bang” grenades—against demonstrators who posed no safety threat. The suit says officials also violated their First Amendment rights to assemble and demonstrate.
However, many would argue against the ACLU’s second point. The First Amendment is not meant to protect just any large gathering of people. It’s meant to protect peaceful and lawful assemblies.
This is a peaceful demonstration.
This is not.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan on Wednesday announced an independent investigation into the police response.
In Austin, Texas, this week, a federal judge has been hearing the case of two Occupy protesters who were arrested and later barred from City Hall under a policy their attorneys call overly broad and say amounts to a ban on speech. The Texas Civil Rights Project says around 106 people have been banned since the protests began, in some cases for up to a year. The policy says a criminal trespass notice may be issued for “unreasonably disruptive” conduct.
Yvette Felarca is among those suing campus police and administration officials at the University of California, Berkeley, after officers forcefully dispersed a group of Occupy protesters and others rallying for public education last month.
Felarca, a middle school teacher and organizer with the civil rights organization By Any Means Necessary, which filed the suit, says she was standing, arms linked with other demonstrators’, before a line of police officers who moved in after some tents were set up on a lawn. She said she was chanting and yelling when a police officer hit her in the throat with his baton. She said she was also hit in her ribs, abdomen and back and watched others bear repeated blows.
“The brutality was absolutely designed to chill the speech of students in the movement and literally try to beat and terrorize our right to criticize, to think critically and to act on that criticism,” Felarca said.
The university has called it “disconcerting” that the suit contains “so many inaccuracies.”
Sobel, of the National Lawyers Guild, said a lawsuit is also planned in the case of the pepper-spraying by campus police of peaceful protesters at the University of California, Davis, video footage of which went viral.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the lawsuits an important check on police power. She noted that authorities haven’t been uniformly excessive around the country, but pointed in New York City to mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge — which are under litigation — as well as the pepper-spraying of several women and the dark-of-night breakup of Zuccotti Park.
She said that her group has been concerned for years about police tactics, but that the response to the Occupy movement shines a light on them in a way that “engages and offends a new sector of the public.”
She predicted there will be other lawsuits about excessive force, civil rights violations and mostly likely people’s rights to get back into Zuccotti, which she said police have blocked from public usage.
“I think what’s been happening with Occupy is so reminiscent of what happened during the Republican National Convention” in 2008, she said. “When people get together to engage in that most American of pastimes — protest — it almost always generates a defensive and repressive response from law enforcement. Occupy is no exception.”
Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., said police overreacted to the Occupy movement in some cities, which probably earned protesters some new support. Still, he noted, protesters’ First Amendment rights are not without limitation.
“We’ve always had to balance our rights,” he said. “No one can really claim you have an unfettered unlimited First Amendment rights. The courts are there to say, wait a minute, that goes too far, or that’s OK. It is part of that give and take. Of course we all wish our rights were never intruded upon.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Comments (132)
barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:23pmHave you also noticed that the International Left has praised the “revolutions” all over which are aimed at bringing “ democracy” to these old despotic ( although controlled) countries ? Just setting the stage for these “innocent” humanitarian good souls at the Endless Occupies in America. And if you don’t think they Left has plans for promoting the “ goodness and sanctity ” of revolution in America, you are both naive and wrong. They have been touting this “revolution in the streets” for months in comments in the New York Times. These guys are dangerous – and Obama “ feels their frustration” which is even more telling and chilling. WAKE UP, folks. Misdeeds are afoot !
Report Post »TexasHunter
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:12pmHere is free speech for you OWSholes! ***** Off.. Get bent. Go OD. Give your children up for adoption. GET A JOB.
Report Post »AOL_REFUGEE
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:34pmBreak out the water canons and flame throwers!
Report Post »turkey13
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 3:26pmLawyers – have you tried Mountain oysters “AuLauyer.” Only one problem is they are about the size of a pea and it takes a big mess of them to make a meal.
Report Post »V-MAN MACE
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 3:28pmI support civil disobedience, because the Tea party threw tea into the harbor.
I don’t condone violence.
Report Post »The10thAmendment
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 3:33pmIn the word of a brilliant man (whoever he is) pfffffffffffft!
Report Post »starman70
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 4:22pmAnd who is paying for this army of lawyers – - – George “Spooky Dude” Soros?
Report Post »starman70
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 4:29pmThe problem is that most of these indolent clowns have never held a productive job. Many atended college on Dad’s money but have never worked anywhere. Obviously, the lawyers don’t work for free so therefore someone is paying the bill. ENTER STAGE LEFT: ‘SPOOKY DUDE”.
P.S. He always enters from the left.
Report Post »carbonyes
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 7:59pmObama doesn’t feel anything. He’s a frigging droid. Remember the Stepford Wives? One of the reasons all of Obama’s records are sealed, because they will reveal he doesn’t have a heart. Soros spent multiple millions manufacturing the sucker, the Imposter-in-Chief, himself. We just didn’t realize how much of an Imposter he was. Wonder how Moooochelle deals with that?
Report Post »carbonyes
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 8:03pmNo, I’m not nuts. Others might argue with you on that one. Makes for interesting commentary though, not the nuts part, the droid suggestion.
Report Post »Sad4theUS
Posted on December 24, 2011 at 12:46pmMore clogging of our court systems with useless law suits by useless idiots!
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:21pmWhat a bunch of fools! They get ALOT of money donated to their aimless cause and they turn around and give it to the 1% lawyers, (who they are protesting), to file bogus lawsuits. Totally brain dead!
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:46pm! word “ idiots ”
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:59pmvery good point. they are making fools out of themselves while costing the taxpayers millions of dollars yearly with their frivilous lawsuits.
Report Post »SouthSideLib
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 4:07pmYeah it’s almost like they think they have some kind of right to peacably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievences…wonder where they got that idea?
Report Post »Grey Eagle
Posted on December 24, 2011 at 9:32pmI am with the other posters. These lazy jerks need to look for work. I have no sympathy for any of them. Most are educated fools.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:14pmThis is all part of the Saul Alinski School of Community Organizers from which sprang Obama , Jones, and many more of our current law degree Lefties. This is all part of their “ use the system to destroy the system ” taught program. This is what the 60′s Radicals learned from the Ayers/ etc. school of radicals. They hate capitalism, America, the anonymous ” rich, fat cats,” the police, authority, and just about everything other than themselves. A very dangerous, manipulative enemy within our very country.
Report Post »Lucy Larue
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 4:04pmBARBER2,
Yes, you are correct.
I do not think that 2012 is going to be a “Happy New Year” for this country.
“Something Wicked This Way Comes.”
VOX POPULI VOX DEI! We are awake!
Report Post »Merry Christmas!
Skippy Toes
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:12pmGood grief.
Report Post »mrmikejohnson
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:10pmGee, you‘d think they’d have trouble hiring lawyers since they’re unemployed and claim poverty. It almost looks like OWS isn’t a bunch of spontaneous individuals, but rather a well-funded planned operation by George Soros and other far left organizations ;)
Report Post »greenivy
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:21pmMost of the people involved in the Occupy movement have jobs. And in many instances their First Amendment rights were violated. Unfortunately, THE BLAZE is very good at distorting the news so one doesn’t get a complete picture of what is happening with the Occupy movement. It also tends to lean towards fascism, and our First Amendment Rights would not be tolerated in a fascist state. I am glad to see the Occupiers are bringing some of these instances of the violation of First Amendment rights to court.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:44pmGREEN: Please peddle your Obama Propaganda somewhere else. We don’t buy any of that baloney. The Master Manipulators of the news are the White House and their Dominant Lap Dog Media.
Report Post »LICENSEDTOCARRY
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:29pmHow sad Green that your brain has been emptied by the likes of MoveOn and HuffPo
Report Post »TOMMYSURIA
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:07pmhttp://www.webofdebt.com/
Report Post »Glass Steagall vs. Obama: the Choice is Yours HR 1489
NO FED, NO PAIN
The current weight of trillions of dollars in gambling debts, foisted on the U.S. taxpayers in the 2008-2011bailout of Wall St. and the City of London, is currently obliterating and destroying the economy of the United States and its people. We must change course immediately.
The first step is to reinstate Glass-Steagall. Without a return to the original Franklin Roosevelt ( AT LEAST THE POOR BASTARD TRY) Glass- Steagall standard, there is no possibility of the continued existence of the United States, as economist Lyndon LaRouche has insisted. Only the re-imposition of the FDR Glass-Steagall principle will separate commercial from speculative banking, thus freeing the nation from obligations to Wall St. and the City of London, and re-establishing a credit system for rebuilding the nation.
H.R. 1489, the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011, is now before the House of Representatives, which aims “to … revive the separation between commercial banking and the securities business, in the manner provided in the Banking Act of 1933, the so-called ‘Glass-Steagall Act.’”
We, the undersigned, therefore demand that Congress immediately act to pass H.R. 1489, and identical
legislation in the Senate, as the indispensable first measure to save the nation.
Ken2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:02pmOK OWS lawyers…let’s see if you can find the magic word in this sentence fragment (in case you don’t know, Lawyers; it is the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America…weird…since we have a “Constitutional Scholar” as President, you‘d think he’d have pointed this out, but I digress)
…or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Did you spot it, lawyers? That’s right…PEACEABLY. Quit wasting our time, OWAS-ers!
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:40pmYes. But these cleverly guided miscreants want to cause an over-reaction so they can BLAME the police – that is their Endless tactic- just wear down your“ enemy” ( which is telling since the police are their “enemy” which says tons about THEM ! )
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:57pmIf this fly’s, I am going to find some posh, DEMOCRAT owned resort and OCCUPY. Bet the results won’t be identical.
Report Post »kentuckypatriot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:55pmSince when does freedom of speech cover violence, defacating, demanding businesses to give them food and use of the restroom, etc etc
Report Post »John 3:16
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:50pmMy daughter was teaching at a University, She was in the Biology Dept. The University offered her a free ride scholorship to their Law school. When she asked my advice, I advised her to wait and pay for her own Medical degree. Really now a free ride scholorship to a career in Thievery? Great way to ruin a career. She went back to a Medical University across town and now has a job with great pay and benefits. I Thank GOD for her choice. I know Attorney’s ethics (for the most part) all too well.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:06pmAnd just think, she could have worked with Nash65′s twin half step aunt who sells Chinese soap
Report Post »The-Real-Enrico
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:37pmThey are still doing what they have always wanted to do. Over flowing the system wasting as much tax dollars as possible and trying to slow the economy into a crash.
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:53pmIf they would go 2 work they would not be protest. We r paying these dumby’s 2 protest, Reagan was right , Freedom is a generation away.
Report Post »Thors Hammer
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:37pmYour ‘right to swing your fist’ ends where the other guy’s nose begins. What OWS et al is doing is rampaging, pure and simple (emphasis on simple)
Report Post »Obama_Sham
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:37pmThe rights of a movement ends when it forces its views on others…
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:32pmThe Occupiers have been pushing the envelope from Day One. Am sure they are frustrated because the police “pigs” have responded so cleverly to their antics. What these lawless Occupiers fail to realize it that the true 99% of Americans side with the police and NOT with these arrogant , spoiled, brainwashed, uncontrolled, misguided jerks.
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:47pmYup
Report Post »HKS
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:35pmMaybe the people should do the same, how much damage cost could we recover? The best defense is a good offense.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:37pmI agree .. every city and private property owner should sue these idiots for the damage and lost business they have caused.
Report Post »FREDD The WILSON
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:23pmNotice that this crap seems to happen at colleges and big cities. Says alot for us simple life country folks.
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:34pmFeerdom of speech, glad I had a chance to enjoy it + the country life.
Report Post »encinom
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:57pmSimple country folk are sheep, unwilling to challenge corruption unless their pastor tells them to.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:28pmENCINOM: “Simple country folk are sheep ” And you, E, are an arrogant Lefty with little common sense but a lot of attitude. ( your pastor told me to tell you that )
Report Post »FREDD The WILSON
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:38pmOBummer and the libs are eying those sheep with wanting lust and a giant hard on.
Report Post »FREDD The WILSON
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:46pmAnd something else EncinoMORON. Don’t make a stupid ass comment like that when it YOUR idols and YOUR Leadership that is the most corrupt most bias and most power hungry pack of thieves that exists today. The sheep you bed with are a bunch of George Soros Van Jones robots that have their marching orders to blow smoke up America’s arse. SOCIAL GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM!
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:53pmEncinom, u must be a city dumb azz. Where do u get ur food , usefull idiot.
Report Post »Tea Party Animal
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:22pmFreedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly DO NOT extend to private property. You can’t just go wherever you want and claim your Constitutional Rights.
Ie: The typical lib who “invades” a meeting or lecture by a conservative on private property (such as a University) and then after disrupting the meeting or lecture claims that their “Freedom of Speech” has been violated. Shows total ignorance of The Constitution.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:35pmThe cities and personal property owners who have had damage by these Occupy are the ones who should be sueing .. hopefully they will!
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:48pmYes u r right , the kids r told the can go anywhere & raise hell.It won’t be long when we all lose.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:22pmThere is a distinct difference between the freedom to assemble versus pitch tents. What part of this do they not understand. Assembly means you meet up, you conduct your grievance, and then you disperse. No where in the Constitution does it give you the right to pitch a tent and squat on public property; literally and physically.
Report Post »wordweaver
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:20pmOne word for these lawsuits: Frivolous! Some of these folks have a peculiar view of what democracy means. They have the freedom to demonstrate and peacefully assemble and air their grievances. They don’t have the right to camp out for weeks on end in public venues, disrupting commerce and the quality of life for those living nearby. One would hope that the courts will reject with great prejudice any attempts by these sycophant lawyers to profit from the Occupy movement.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:43pmthe lawyers also aim to disrupt the court system. They are using the law to destroy the system. Just What the Alinski Community Organizers were taught to do ! Such good, anti-capitalist , anarchistic students they are .
Report Post »Rich HOffman
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:17pmThese were not protests, they were military actions by those who wish to create a civil war in America, and intend to use the case law from trials like these to advance their cause.
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/warnings-of-the-ndaa-act-visions-of-the-future/
Useful idiots to spread Socialism International agenda points.
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:01pmYup, fraid ur right.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:17pmYes. A revolutionary by any other word is still a revolutionary.
Report Post »SoCaLCapitalist
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:16pmI want the police unions and cities to start suing every organization, union, protest leader and protester. Use civil injunctions that work on organized gangs on these occu-losers. Any kids in college studying law should start considering a conservative law profession. There is plenty of money in the hands of these liberal groups. Time to beat these jerks at their own game.
Report Post »brother_ed
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:11pmThese are not protests. Time to call them what they are; they are riots at best, revolts at the worst.
Report Post »geonj
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:10pmthese occupiers are very well funded for not being back by any groups.
Report Post »JustPeachy
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:07pmAs they lose these cases, they should also foot the bills for all court costs incurred.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:06pmPlease… go away!
Report Post »barber2
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:16pmAm sure this will be the next tactic after the Endless Occupies : The Endless Lawsuits… ( a famous southern expression best fits these guys: they are “like t—- that won’t flush .”
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:03pmUh, freedom of speech does not cover ‘defecating for obama’ – sorry losers.
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