Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Free Thinkers!

Log in, register an account, or post as a guest.


Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Occupy protesters sue over free speech, force
Topic Started: Dec 22 2011, 07:17 PM (327 Views)
Petunia
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
Occupy protesters sue over free speech, force
By ERIKA NIEDOWSKI | AP -- 1 hr 19 mins ago

Most major Occupy encampments have been dispersed, but they live on in a flurry of lawsuits in which protesters are asserting their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly and challenging authorities' mass arrests and use of force to break up tent cities.

Lawyers representing protesters have filed lawsuits -- or are planning them -- in state and federal courts from coast to coast, challenging eviction orders and what they call heavy-handed police tactics and the banning of demonstrators from public properties.

Some say the fundamental right of protest has been criminalized in places, with protesters facing arrest and charges while doing nothing more than exercising protected rights to demonstrate.

"When I think about the tents as an expression of the First Amendment here, I compare it to Tahrir Square in Egypt," said Carol Sobel, co-chairwoman of the National Lawyers Guild's Mass Defense Committee.

"Our government is outraged when military forces and those governments come down on the demonstrators. But they won't extend the same rights in this country," she said. "They praise that as a fight for democracy, the values we treasure. It comes here and these people are riffraff."

full article: http://news.yahoo.com/occupy-protesters-sue-over-free-speech-force-213132772.html

Edited by Petunia, Dec 22 2011, 07:18 PM.
Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · General Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Cooper Blue created by SlyCooperFan1 from Outline & ZNR