Oakland Settles Anti-War Protest Lawsuit

Portland Anti-Bush/Anti-War (same thing) Protest in Oakland 2003

Feb. 9, 2006 | Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- A dozen anti-war protesters who accused police of using excessive force to break up a raucous demonstration three years ago have settled with the city for nearly $400,000, lawyers said.

Protesters said police fired wood bullets and bean-bag rounds at them without provocation and failed to allow them to disperse during the 2003 rally at the Port of Oakland.

The city "admitted no wrongdoing" from their violent and unprovoked attack on people demonstrating - or TRYING to demonstrate - against the illegal invasion and "war" against Iraq.



Note that this took only 3 years to get wrangled out.

Our rights gets shot and tasered and people get arrested and tear-gassed, shot, and assualted when they demonstrate and "Justice" is "delivered" 3 years later and only after a series of expensive lawsuits.

This is why a large team of lawyers would be absolutely essential for Camp Liberty efforts.



We KNOW exactly the sort of treatment we will get - everything we saw in Oakland, in Miami at the FTAA, and in NYC at the RNC protests. THus it seems a moot point that an entire platoon of lawyers would be desirable. Young, eager legal types, paralegals, and seasoned lawyers who understand the threats presented by Team Bush should step up for a semi-coordinated pro bono effort to build a wall of legal injunctions in advance of planned protests.



Or maybe the entire idea of protesting should center on/revolve around pre-emptive lawsuits with the intent to totally hobble law enforcement allowing the People to simply exercise our Constitutional writes as they are already written. I can't pretend to know, not being a constitutional scholor or lawyer, but this seems to be where we are headed.