$1 million payout in 2010 Oscar Grant mass arrests in Oakland
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland and Alameda County have agreed to pay more than $1 million and reform their crowd-control policies to settle a lawsuit filed by 150 people who were arrested together - and then held for hours - while protesting the sentence given to the BART police officer who fatally shot Oscar Grant in 2009.
The class-action suit accused Oakland police of violating their own policies by failing to order demonstrators to disperse before "kettling" and arresting them on suspicion of unlawful assembly on Nov. 5, 2010 in a neighborhood east of Lake Merritt.
Instead of being cited and released for the misdemeanor offense, the protesters said, they were held in sheriff's department buses for hours while handcuffed, leading some people to urinate on the floor or themselves. Demonstrators were held overnight in crowded jail cells because deputies were overwhelmed by the number of arrestees.
... Plaintiff Katie Loncke, 26, of Oakland, said she hoped the agreement would allow protesters to "be able to engage in dissent without fear of arrest." The deal calls for Loncke and three other plaintiffs representing the class to receive $9,000 each, with the others splitting $639,000. Their arrest records would be sealed and destroyed. Their attorneys would receive $350,000.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/1-million-payout-in-Oakland-mass-arrests-4619816.php
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