Seattle to pay WTO protesters $1 million

[uppityperson]

Source: Seattle Times

The city of Seattle will pay $1 million to WTO protesters who were arrested in Westlake Park seven years ago and will clear their records, in a settlement announced today.

The money will cover the plaintiffs' legal fees, with the rest divided among 160 protesters, who will get roughly $3,000 to $10,000 per person, said Mike Withey, their attorney. "We think the cash settlement does send a message that what Seattle did was wrong and we shouldn't have been denied our constitutional rights," said Ken Hankin, a Boeing engineer and one of the arrested protesters.

The $1 million will come from the city's insurer, not taxpayers, Withey said. The city has already paid $800,000 to settle multiple claims involving police misconduct during the WTO protests.

Withey said today's announcement "closes a chapter in Seattle history" because it marks the last of the legal cases stemming from protests and arrests involving 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Seattle police officers will also receive training on why the department lacked probable cause for mass arrests, Withey added. "Nothing is going to replace the time spent in jail and the lost right to protest WTO," Hankin added. "But I feel good about the settlement because it shows the city and the police are willing to accept some changes in their training, and we hope the police follow through and won't do this again."...

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003647761_webwto02m.html

[Demeter]

1. Took Them Long Enough

[uppityperson]

2. Better Late than Never!

[Joanne98]

3. Off to the Greatest!

:woohoo:

[uppityperson]

4. cool, checking back in, no replies, ho hum. Good thing, this.

odd that replies and recommends can be so different. That'll teach me to assume anything.

[pberq]

5. Good news!

[sazemisery]

6. We shall overcome!

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. "Closes a chapter in Seattle history"

I guess he feels the Seattle protest movement is over.

Given all the gentrification and suburbanization that
is occurring there and elsewhere, displacing anyone
who might feel the need to protest and forcing people
to commute in to towns they don't live in simply to
find a place where people imagine it is feasible to
march (since they are not willing to take the streets
without a permit), I'm not surprised they feels that way.

The day Americans start taking to the streets (not
sidewalk) in the suburbs will be the day protests
start having an impact on people's lives again,
since nobody but the very rich and the very poor
lives in the city any more (unfortunately),

thanks to the "success" of globalization and the failure
of the Seattle protest movement, which pretty much
dissolved after 9-11...

[uppityperson]

9. I think the chapter is the aftermath of these protests, not all protests in general

As there have been protests since though none as major. Seattle has a fair number of people living in the city in older homes, many many condos, as well as several thriving university/colleges. Nice to have the lawsuits settled finally, with the results they got.

[redqueen]

8. "we hope the police follow through and won't do this again"

Awwww... that's cute.

:eyes:

[ohtransplant]

10. In the current environment cities see it as a "cost of doing business."

I think they always knew they would lose/settle any cases brought by the protesters and that their insurance company would pay. They just figure the costs into what it takes to host such an event.

They got off waaaaaay too easy IMHO.

[entanglement]

11. How about tough action against the thuggish Seattle cops for their brutality?

n/t

[happydreams]

12. What in the fuck is it about this shit that thinking people can't see????

THIS IS NOOOOOT GOOD NEWS!!

THIS WILL NOOOT DISCOURAGE COPS FROM GETTING ROUGH!!

All this does is pass the cost onto to the taxpayer. :eyes: :eyes:

It is exactly the thing the fascists want to see: pitting the taxpayers against the war protesters.

[cosmicdot]

13. so, after expenses, the going rate for 'rights' in Seattle is $3-10K?

is that exempt from taxation?

I suspect that individual's civil rights' rates vary from time to time, and place to place ... $3-$10K isn't very much ... that's a drop in the Founding Principles' bucket ...

of course, as in corporate cases, an insurance company will pay the fine; similarly, those who executed the violations aren't penalized for violating citizens' rights ... who will bear the record for constitutional violations? it needs to be made a bigger deal, imo ... is it a wonder that after all these years and decades it still occurs?