CHICAGO, Illinois (PNN) - February 10, 2012 - Some 800 people are to receive payments between $500 and $15,000 for false arrests carried out by outlaw pig thug cops in city of Chicago - popularly known as Gangstertown - during a 2003 anti-war demonstration, according to the terms of a settlement offered by thug city attorneys on Thursday.
The outlaw City Council could vote on the settlement as soon as June, The Chicago Tribune noted.
The settlement comes after years of litigation during which attorneys for the plaintiffs brought two class-action lawsuits that showed pig thug cops allowed the demonstration to take place but later decided to begin making mass arrests without properly warning the crowd to disperse.
Some of the innocent people arrested and charged spent more than two days behind bars. Over 10,000 reportedly took part in the march, and more than 500 innocent citizens were arrested, many for no reason at all.
Every single person arrested during the protest was later released and the respective charges were dismissed. A trial had been scheduled to begin later in February, but it will not go forward due to the settlement. The lawsuit had previously been thrown out by a lower court, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said last year that it may proceed.
People who were charged and detained will get the bulk of the settlement payments, with individual amounts up to $15,000, while those who were arrested and not charged may get up to $8,750. People detained but not arrested or charged could get up to $500 each.
“We didn’t want to have to bring this lawsuit, and we don’t want to have to bring other lawsuits,” Melinda Power, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Tribune. “We’re sorry that the people of the city of Chicago will be having to pay a lot of money because the city of Chicago falsely arrested people and then refused for nine years to settle this case, causing people to spend millions of dollars.”