Arrests Prompt 2nd Suit; Activists Detained During Fall Protests
A second group of antiwar and anti-globalization protesters sued the District and its police department yesterday, repeating claims of earlier plaintiffs that the mass arrests in Pershing Park in September were unconstitutional, unnecessarily harsh and based on false charges.</br></br>The suit, which seeks class-action status to represent the more than 400 people arrested Sept. 27 at the downtown park, says that the "true purpose of the Pershing Park mass arrests appears to have been to disrupt and prevent political demonstrations," a violation of basic First Amendment rights.</br></br>"No one was breaking the law, no one trying to shut down the city, no one was trying to block the streets, no one was throwing bricks," said Arthur Spitzer, legal director for the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who is helping to represent the plaintiffs.</br></br>"Police can't arrest people because they think they're going to break the law at some point in the future," he said.</br></br>The arrests, made during a weekend in which some demonstrators vowed to cripple the city with waves of protests, have come under close scrutiny in recent months.