23-10-2013, 08:47 AM
Peter Lemkin Wrote:A little more than two years ago the NYPD arrested 732 demonstrators on the Brooklyn Bridge in what would be the largest mass arrest of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. But how many of those chargesmainly for disorderly conduct or obstructing governmental administrationstuck? The current tally: 680 dismissals (195 at the request of the City, 40 by judges, and 445 more ACD); 21 cases where charges were dropped; 6 guilty pleas to disorderly conduct; 2 acquittals; 1 plea resolved in another case, and 17 no-shows. Five protesters were convicted of the charges levied against them.
"From an administrative and justice perspective, this was obviously a challenge," Manhattan DA Cy Vance told Colin Moynihan. "I'm proud that the office handled the cases in a fair and evenhanded way."
The cases were handled by the DA's "mass arrest coordinator," with the help of three prosecutors and four paralegals. The National Lawyers Guild, which represented 662 of the protesters, assigned 45 volunteer attorneys who made 1,500 appearances in court.
A class action suit filed by the protesters against the City, alleging that the NYPD lured them on to the Brooklyn Bridge to be arrested, is still working its way through the legal system.
It's unclear how much the arrests and their ensuing prosecution cost taxpayers, though the NYPD spent $17 million in overtime on Occupy-related events in 2011 (the department budgeted $614 million for overtime this year [PDF]).
Mass arrests during demonstrations are regarded by experts as having a profoundly chilling effect on free speech [PDF].
1,806 people were arrested during the 2004 GOP convention, and around 90% of those cases were dismissed. Taxpayers shelled out at least $8.2 million for the City to defend the ensuing lawsuits, but the real number is likely much higher: the most recent figure available is from 2008.
There goes the justice part of the legal system.
Ooops, just remembered. Justice doesn't really form part of the legal system anymore -- it's been suborned by procedure, privilege and wealth.
"Justice" from the Free Online Law Dictionary:
Quote:justice n. 1) fairness. 2) moral rightness. 3) a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal. One problem is that attorneys, judges, and legislatures often get caught up more in procedure than in achieving justice for all. Example: the adage "justice delayed is justice denied," applies to the burdensome procedures, lack of sufficient courts, clogging the system with meritless cases, and the use of the courts to settle matters which could be resolved by negotiation. The imbalance between court privileges obtained by attorneys for the wealthy and for the person of modest means, the use of delay and "blizzards" of unnecessary paper by large law firms, and judges who fail to cut through the underbrush of procedure all erode justice. 4) an appellate judge, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court, a member of a Federal Court of Appeal, and judges of any of the various state appellate courts.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14