A suit filed by eight plaintiffs states that they were part of mass demonstration outside of a YMCA. Protesters were corralled along Broadway Avenue and taken into police custody, and some were held for as long as 85 hours without being charged.
The suit alleges that police never issued any dispersal orders, and that the arrests came without warning.
U.S. Magistrate Nathanael Cousins approved the nearly $1.36 million settlement last week, and city and county leaders have already given it their stamp of approval.
The eight plaintiffs will each receive $9,000, and $350,000 will go toward legal fees. The magistrate ordered the remaining $878,000 to be split between roughly 400 others involved in a class-action suit against the city for police abuse.
That’s roughly $2,200 a person.
The plaintiffs insist it’s not about the money.
“It’s the job of the Mayor [Libby] Schaaf and the City Council to make sure that the Oakland Police Department understands the basis of this case,” said Dan Siegal, the plaintiffs’ attorney, “and that it requires that the police end the indiscriminate mass arrest of people taking part in a peaceful demonstration.”
It’s a familiar message across the country. Just last week, the city of New York paid over $142,000 to settle cases alleging police violence against Occupy Wall Street protesters. Sandra Fields, one of the protesters, received $75,000 after an officer tackled her during a 2012 demonstration, causing her to hit her head against the pavement.
“I was in shock,” Fields told the Daily News. “I was dumbfounded and really in pain.”
Oakland is no stranger to settling civil suits of Occupy protesters. Scott Olsen received $4.5 million in 2012 after suffering permanent brain damage from a police beanbag gun fired mere feet from his head.
Recently overshadowed in the mainstream media by recent nationwide demonstrations concerning police brutality against minorities, Occupy protests began in 2011 as a response to economic inequality.
