Your protest group's website not getting enough donations? Your meetings take in no GATE? Not to worry. BIG MONEY in THOSE PICKETS AND PROTESTS IF YOU DO IT RIGHT! Takes three years to collect but you will get the money. First, every single protestor signs a contract as he picks up his picket. Contract reads that he only gets 60% of his share of the LAWSUIT. He donates the rest to the 'tax exempt foundation' that your charity is esconsed in. Doubt these Californians in one suit, the AUSSIES in the other one here.. did that but hey their lawyers sure got the MONEY part down! So all you need is a LAWYER!
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MAY DAY VICTIMS AWARDED
$1.7MILLION
VERDICT. Jury Sided with
Journalists in '07 pro-immigration Rally.
A Los Angeles jury awarded more than $1.7 million Friday Friday (July 2nd, 2010) to a local television camera woman who said she was roughed up by police officers during a pro-immigration rally in MacArthur park three years ago. Jury awarded the damages to FOX 11 camerawoman Patricia Ballaz, who siad she was injured. Jury awarded KPCC radio reporter Patricia nazario $39,000.
"This has been an extremely difficult and exhausting road to travel," Ballaz said. "And I'm grateful to the jury for holding the Los Angeles Police Department accountable for its unwarranted attack upon my body and soul. I'd also like to express my sincere appreciation to the Los Angeles city officials and high-ranking members of the LAPD who did not sit idly by, but expressed their outrage at the wrongdoing that occurred at MacArthur Park. Their respect for the truth will always be meaningful to me.
"May 1, 2007 is a day that I will never forget, it is a day that has changed my life forever," she said. "My genuine hope is that this trial and its verdict will serve as a strong reminder to the LAPD to think twice about using excessive force in any kind of situation. Our free speech and civil rights are precious and if we can't rely on the police to protect them, who can we trust?"
Deputy City Attorney Jessica B. Brown, who defended the city and the LAPD during trial of the journalists' lawsuit, could not be reached for immediate comment on the jury's decision.
In her closing argument, Brown told jurors the journalists' legal rights were not infringed upon.
She said Ballaz and Gonzalez ignored seven warnings from police to stay out of the line on which officers were advancing through the park on May 1, 2007.
Repeatedly saying the objective evidence shows that many of the plaintiffs' claims about being abused "strain the bounds of credibility," Brown said the journalists were bound to obey police orders to get out of the skirmish line in the same way as anyone else there.
"They are not kings; nobody gives them special rights," Brown said.
Deputy City Attorney Todd Hayward, addressing the newswomen's damages claims, said the plaintiffs did not prove their claims to be sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Attorneys for the journalists argued during the trial that police violated their constitutional rights in a manner that drew the ire of the mayor and police chief.
"There was a war against the media out there that day," Ballaz's attorney, Browne Greene, told the jury.
Greene told the panel that his client, now 51, will never work in her field again and has about $2.4 million in damages in total for past and present lost wages, as well as medical costs.
He showed jurors photos of Ballaz with a bruise near her right breast -- allegedly from being hit with a baton -- as well as another of an injured, discolored foot.
Both Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and then-LAPD Chief William Bratton found fault with the actions of the elite Metro Division officers who confronted the journalists, Greene said.
In late October, the District Attorney's Office announced that no criminal charges would be filed against any LAPD personnel for actions during the May Day rally.
In February 2009, the council agreed to pay nearly $13 million to settle lawsuits filed by attendees who said they were injured or mistreated during the rally.
The settlement reached last year covered 297 individuals who were part of eight consolidated cases and a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court.
"The jury found that the LAPD failed to adhere to its own rules on crowd control and in protecting the Constitutional rights of the news media covering the 2007 May Day rally in MacArthur Park, including Patti Ballaz' free speech rights," Greene said in a statement after the jury's verdict was announced. "Patti's victory today is bittersweet as she will bear the physical and emotional scars of that fateful day for the rest of her life."
During the trial, Brown expressed skepticism about the women's medical claims. She said some had pre-existing medical conditions and that there was little evidence to support their claims that their physical states were worsened by the confrontation with police.
Brown also said most of the members of the media covering the rally that day obeyed the police and got their stories. He said the three women could have still gotten the job done had they done so from different vantage points within the park.
--------------------------------------- Another headline---------------------------------------
Anti-nuke protesters awarded $700,000 for 'feral'
treatment
April 9, 2010 - Sydney Morning Herald
Anti-nuclear protesters who were beaten by police, capsicum sprayed and locked in a shipping container have been awarded more than $700,000 in damages from the South Australian government. (feral means treated like dingo dogs on a roundup) In a judgment in the South Australian Supreme Court today, Justice Timothy Anderson found the treatment of the 10 people, during a demonstration at the Beverley Uranium mine almost 10 years ago, was degrading, humiliating and frightening. The judge also criticised two state government ministers for their comments about the protesters, including Deputy Premier Kevin Foley who called them a bunch of "ferals" who put the safety of police in jeopardy. The group, including a girl aged 11 at the time, had sued over their treatment during the May 2000 anti-nuclear demonstration, which involved about 100 protesters, claiming they were assaulted, subjected to mental injury, deprived of food and water and humiliated.
In 2002, a Police Complaints Authority (PCA) report found one police officer had used excessive force in striking a protester with a baton while another used capsicum spray on a protester who was already injured and posed no threat.
The PCA also found police were negligent in detaining protesters in a shipping container and that none of the 31 arrests made during the protest were lawful.
In his judgment, Justice Anderson said the shipping container should not have been used at all.
"It was degrading, humiliating and frightening," he said.
"It was an affront to the civil liberties of the protesters.
"The conditions were oppressive, degrading and dirty, there was a lack of air, there was the smell from capsicum spray and up to 30 persons were crammed into a very small space."
Justice Anderson said it had also been inappropriate to detain the protesters for several hours when keeping them just for a short while would have taken the heat out of the situation.
He said some of the action taken by police was heavy handed and unnecessary, particularly in relation to the use of capsicum spray and batons.
Turning to Mr Foley, Justice Anderson said his comments, which came when the government withdrew from attempts to resolve the case through mediation, were both unreasonable and antagonistic.
"The comments are one-sided and do not acknowledge the extreme way in which the police dealt with protesters and the circumstances of their detention," the judge said.
He also criticised Police Minister Michael Wright who had rejected the idea of a settlement because of its potential to undermine the good standing of the South Australian police and encourage others to sue.
"It is my view that both ministers, in making these statements, have acted with a high-handed and contumelious disregard of the plaintiffs as citizens of the state with a right to protest, and with the right to be treated according to law if they did protest," Justice Anderson said.
The judge awarded the plaintiffs, who also included a television cameraman,
varying amounts with the largest single payment of $95,100 going to Lucinda
White who was assaulted, sprayed and verbally abused before being locked
up for about seven hours. Outside court she described the police action
on the day as outrageous in a civilised country. "People have a right not
to be bashed, beaten and falsely imprisoned by police," she said.
"We have a right to protest. I am absolutely stunned this sort of thing
can happen in South Australia."
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/antinuke-protesters-awarded-700000-for-feral-treatment-20100409-rxyv.html
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