August 17–24, 2000

hall monitor

Legal Tender

Locking up 390 political activists during the Republican National Convention may have cost the city of Philadelphia a lot of money, but it’s nothing compared to what letting them out is threatening to cost.

That’s because the R2K Legal Network — a team of civil rights attorneys representing the jailed protesters — says it has collected statements detailing police brutality from more than 180 of its clients. And the network is gearing up to file "countless" class action suits against the city.

Patrol personnel and police administrators will be targets of the lawsuits, says attorney Angus Love. The city prison system will also get hit with a suit for allegedly abhorrent prison conditions.

While the court system is responsible for setting "unreasonably high bails" for a number of protesters arrested during the week of the GOP convention, it has immunity from lawsuits, Love says. At least one protester’s bail was set at $1 million and another at $500,000.

Seven people working as unlicensed medics during the protests filed suit against the city earlier this week. They charge police with harassing and illegally searching them over two days during the Republican Convention.

One of the strongest class action suits lawyers plan to file is on behalf of 70 people arrested when police raided a warehouse being used by puppeteers in West Philadelphia. The space was used to make and store giant puppets and floats showcased during protests.

A judge has sealed the police affidavit, making it impossible to discern if the police have evidence to support their charges that activists had explosives. Those arrested in the warehouse, at 41st and Haverford Streets, insist the charges against them are "bogus."

"People in the warehouse even have ‘obstructed highway’ charges against them," Love says.

Most cases yet to be filed are likely to seek nominal sums of money but, nonetheless, the city’s legal fees could be astronomical.

"In most of the civil suits we plan to file, we will ask for injunctions, not money," says R2K Legal Network lawyer Marina Sitrin. "We will ask the police to stop hog-tying people in jails and to stop denying medical needs."

Sitrin says the nearly 200 cases of police brutality documented by R2K Legal include: depriving protesters of air and water as they sat in hot buses while waiting to be booked at the Roundhouse; failing to arraign those in jail for more than 100 hours and denying them access to attorneys; and hog-tying arrestees and forcing them to sit with their ankles bound to their wrists for up to 10 hours.

Others released from jail report sexual abuse, Sitrin says. "People had their testicles and nipples twisted while naked in jail."

A case of broken ribs and failure to provide medical attention are among the other allegations of police brutality, Sitrin says.

Hundreds of activists charged with misdemeanors for crimes that normally render summary offenses — the legal equivalent of a parking ticket — are also considering bringing a suit against the city.

—Gwen Shaffer