City agrees to $6.2 million settlement with Iraq war protestors
BY FRAN SPIELMAN and maudlyne ihejirika Staff Reporters February 9, 2012 4:48PM
Updated: March 11, 2012 8:48AM
The City of Chicago reached a $6.2 million settlement Thursday with some 850 protesters who were wrongfully arrested or detained after a 2003 demonstration that shut down Lake Shore Drive.
The settlement would end the nine-year-old class-action lawsuit protesters brought in the wake of mass arrests by the Chicago Police Department at the demonstration against the Iraq War.
Under the settlement, members of the class who were arrested, charged and had to go to court will receive up to $15,000; those arrested and released without being charged will receive up to $8,750; and those who were detained at the scene by police will receive up to $500.
The protesters’ attorneys contend the city had little choice but to settle after last year’s harshly worded federal appeals court ruling that the mass arrests were not justified.
“This case is important not only to the class members and their attorneys, but also for civil liberties, as it scores a significant victory for the right to demonstrate in Chicago,” attorneys from the People’s Law Office said in a statement.
On March 20, 2003, more than 10,000 people converged on Chicago in protest of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, marching through downtown and up Lake Shore Drive before being corralled by police.
Police allowed the anti-war demonstration without a permit to shut down the Drive during the height of the evening rush, then trapped demonstrators at Chicago and Michigan and arrested more than 500 of them — and detained 350 others — without giving them a notice to disperse or an opportunity to leave.
That, the Appeals Court ruled, was changing the rules in the middle of the game.
Commenting on the settlement Thursday, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said the city has learned lessons from the lawsuit that will serve it well for the G-8 and NATO summits this spring.
“If you were paying attention to the way that the Chicago Police Department handled Occupy Chicago, there were very clear warnings given,” McCarthy said. “They were videoed so that they’re on tape, so that we can say, ‘Yes, we have issued these warnings.’ And then people received individual warnings. So we’ve certainly learned the lessons of the past as far as moving forward and what it is we need to do.”
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