Jennifer Peat, 36, and Garrett O'Connor, 34, both plaintiffs in the Occupy Wall Street lawsuit, at a news conference Tuesday. Jake Naughton/The New York Time
The City of New York has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to resolve a lawsuit accusing police officers of falsely arresting Occupy Wall Street participants who were walking on a sidewalk in the East Village on New Year’s Day 2012.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the settlements were the biggest yet connected to claims stemming from Occupy Wall Street. Officials from the city Law Department and the Office of the Comptroller could not immediately verify that assertion, saying they do not track Occupy settlements as a category.
Last year, the city agreed to pay $230,000 to resolve a suit stemming from the loss or destruction of books from the Occupy Wall Street library. A group called Global Revolution was also paid $75,000 for lost computer equipment. Other lawsuits are pending, including a class-action claim stemming from the arrests of about 700 people while they marched on the Brooklyn Bridge roadway on Oct. 1, 2011.
The lawsuit stems from the morning of Jan. 1, 2012, after a turbulent evening at Zuccotti Park, where hundreds of protesters gathered, some dismantling metal barricades ringing the park and scuffling with police officers. After the police cleared the park, about 200 protesters marched to the East Village, accompanied by a large number of officers on foot and in vehicles.
At the corner of Second Avenue and 13th Street, officers halted the marchers as they walked along a sidewalk. The complaint filed by the plaintiffs stated that the officers surrounded the group and ordered them to disperse despite not allowing them to do so. They were then arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, the complaint said, adding that the Manhattan district attorney’s office had declined to prosecute those cases.
A video on Ustream showed senior police officials, including James P. Hall, then the chief of patrol, consulting as the marchers chanted, “Are we being detained, are we free to go?” A police captain told the marchers that they were blocking the sidewalk and pedestrian traffic. A few moments later, the video showed, officers moved in and began making arrests.
Twelve plaintiffs will receive $20,000 apiece; two participants who agreed to settlements earlier will receive $5,000 apiece. The city has also agreed to pay $333,000 in legal fees.
“In this case and many others we have seen that the police do not understand the rights afforded individuals under the Constitution, especially with respect to expressive speech activity,” said Wylie Stecklow, the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer on the case. “Our hope is that this is the starting point for police retraining.”
Andrew Lucas, a lawyer for the city, said that the lawsuit involved “a fast-evolving, complicated policing situation,” and added: “Settlement was in all parties’ best interest.”
