Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - National Lawyers Guild

National Work
NYC Awards $2 Million in Free Speech Suit
by Sarah Kunstler
On April 7, 2003, I was arrested at an
anti-war protest with over 90 others
during the opening days of the invasion
of Iraq and soon after the city persuaded
the Republican Party to hold its 2004
convention in New York.
The protest was in front of the offices
of a Carlyle Group affiliate at 56th Street
and 5th Avenue. The Carlyle Group is
an investment firm managing some $14
billion in assets, including stakes in a
number of defense-related companies.
They are a major defense contractor with
ties to former heads of State and to the
Bush White House. They are, in effect,
war profiteers.
Most of the arrested were charged
with disorderly conduct and blocking
pedestrian traffic, although videotapes
showed a quiet orderly demonstration
lining the edge of the sidewalk with
ample room for passersby. Our arrests
were made without any dispersal order
or opportunity to leave.
I was 26 years old and in my second
year of law school. I had been going to
protests all of my life. I thought I was
invisible to the police. I thought that
I could decide to participate in civil disobedience,
and risk arrest, or to lawfully
protest without such risk. I was naïve.
I didn’t know any of the others
arrested. But in the months and weeks
that followed, we organized. We
supported each other as our criminal
cases wound their way through the
court system. And after some of us were
acquitted and the charges against the
rest were dismissed, we decided to join
together to fight the repression of our
First Amendment Rights. Fifty-two of us
filed a civil lawsuit against the New York
City Police Department and the City of
New York.
The case went on for over five years,
delayed by the City’s refusal to negotiate.
We had no idea it would take so long to
reach a resolution. We were 52 people
against the City of New York and the
NYPD. There were many points
along the way when the odds seemed
insurmountable.
Finally, in August 2008, we settled
with the city for just over $2 million.
Litigation like ours puts pressure on
the City to stop violating people’s rights
as a matter of policy and stop wasting
taxpayers’ money doing so. I hope our
victory serves as a reminder that
Washington’s illegal war in Afghanistan
and Iraq is also being fought at home—
against its own citizens and in the name
of war profiteers like Carlyle and
Halliburton. •
Sarah Kunstler is a long-time Guild
member, an attorney and filmmaker.
NLG Hosts Luis Posada Carriles Tribunal
On November 7, 2008 the New York University NLG Chapter, along with
the New York Chapter and the National Office, hosted “Luis Posada
Carriles: A Tribunal.” The event was hosted by Michael Steven Smith and
featured historian Jane Franklin, author of two books about Cuba—
Cuban Foreign Relations: A Chronology, 1959-1982 (Center for Cuban
Studies, 1984) and Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History
(Ocean Press, 1997). Also speaking was Wayne Smith, Senior Fellow at
the Center for International Policy in Washington, who spent 25 years
with the Department of State, having served as the Executive Secretary
of President Kennedy’s Latin American Task Force. Brian Becker rounded
off the evening. Brian is National Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R.
Coalition and has spearheaded a nationwide campaign over the past few
years demanding the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela to stand trial for his crimes against humanity.
The event has been transcribed into an electronic book and is available on line at www.nlg.org/posada
4• GUILD NOTES • WINTER 2008