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The National Lawyers Guild-New York City Chapter calls for justice for the 1800 people whose civil, human and constitutional rights were trampled during the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC) in New York City.
Five years ago tens of thousands of people gathered in New York City to voice opposition to the agenda of the Bush administration, and to advocate for a more just and peaceful world. In response the New York City Police Department (NYPD), at the direction of Mayor Bloomberg and under the command of Commissioner Kelly, engaged in the wholesale suspension of the constitutional rights of protestors by engaging in mass sweep arrests of peaceful and law-abiding demonstrators, legal observers, journalists, and passers-by, confining them for days in a filthy, hazardous garage at Pier 57 and in the City’s jails, and initiating false charges against them.
Five years later dozens of civil rights lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of the RNC victims remain unresolved. The City’s Law Department, using a cadre of hired lawyers to defend the RNC cases, has made every effort to delay resolution at a cost to city taxpayers of millions of dollars in attorney fees paid to these attorneys.
Additionally, the Law Department has targeted the NLG-NYC by repeated attempts to subpoena privileged RNC files in retaliation for the NLG-NYC’s vigorous representation and legal support for those arrested during the RNC and its criticism of the role of the Bloomberg administration. On September 3, 2009, United States District Court Judge Richard Sullivan rejected all of the City’s legal arguments in its latest attempt to gain access to privilege communications between the NLG-NYC and its clients.
Mayor Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelly and other police officials have yet to be held fully accountable for their roles in this deplorable chapter in NYC history. The City’s Law Department must cease their delaying and harassing tactics and the City must expeditiously and justly compensate the RNC victims.
Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, grassroots democracy, New York State Politics, Press Release
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