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|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Press Releases R2K LEGAL COLLECTIVE PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 1, 2001 CONTACT: Kris Hermes, R2K Legal Collective (215) 925-6791; Larry Krasner, R2K Lawyer (215) 731-9500; Paul Hetznecker, R2K Lawyer (215) 893-9640 http://www.r2klegal.org PUPPET WAREHOUSE CIVIL SUITS FILED ON ANNIVERSARY OF GOP CONVENTION ARRESTS Puppet warehouse arrestees file largest RNC civil suit to date on the anniversary of mass arrests made at last year's Republican Convention protests. Lawsuits allege police abuse and malicious prosecution of meritless cases. (Philadelphia, PA) Attorneys Paul Hetznecker and Lawrence Krasner filed suit in federal court today against the City of Philadelphia on behalf of what will be dozens of people arrested in a warehouse where puppets, signs and banners were being made on August 1, 2000 during the Republican National Convention (RNC). The lawsuit alleges that demonstrators were subject to preventive detention and malicious prosecution. The warehouse defendants suffered months of hearings before the cases were thrown out last November. A year later, there are still nine cases stemming from the RNC protests that have yet to go to trial. The DA has delayed eight of those cases in an attempt to impose harsher treatment. Of the over seventy people who were arrested in the puppet warehouse, approximately fifty are committed to filing suit against the city. Today's suit includes an initial wave of eleven plaintiffs, with the rest joining on over the next couple of weeks. The plaintiffs allege unlawful arrest, improper search and seizure, excessive bail, and denial of free speech rights. The suits seek monetary damages and more importantly injunctions against police abuse. "The puppet cases have been seen as the clearest example of police misconduct," says Matthew Hart of the Spiral Q Puppet Theater and plaintiff in the suit against the city. "Yet, it has been shown time and again that they are merely examples of widespread misconduct that occurred at last summer's demonstrations under Police Commissioner Timoney's watch." At the time of the warehouse raid, the occupants were accused of having C4 explosives and acid-filled balloons. They were also accused of using the puppet space to plan violence and orchestrate a riot. In court, these claims evaporated. All of the cases against those arrested in the warehouse were thrown out. No weapons were found there, and there was no evidence of violence being planned. Not one person arrested there could be linked to any violent, or even non-violent illegal act. Hundreds of activists that were in Philadelphia to voice outrage on issues such as the criminal "justice" system -- the death penalty, police violence, class warfare -- and corporate domination of politics and the global economy were arrested, overcharged, and excessively prosecuted. Of the over 400 arrested, all but a handful of the cases have been thrown out, vindicating people's claims of excessive charging and malicious prosecution. Of the original forty-three people charged with felonies, most have had their charges dropped or thrown out, and there have been no felony convictions at trial. School of the Americas Watch activist Linda Panetta's case was dismissed last Fall on grounds of selective prosecution and then later appealed by the DA's office. "The DA's decision to appeal the case is further proof that the city is intent on targeting peaceful political activists," says Panetta. "These suits show how the City of Philadelphia did wrong and should own up to it," said attorney Lawrence Krasner. "Having lost over and over again in the criminal proceedings, it's time for the city to stop using the protesters as a political football to promote its own political agenda at the expense of all our rights." --030-- |
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