nodoginnafight
No Party Affiliation
Not really. The city does a metric on the cost of litigation vs what the aggrived party is willing to settle for. If the settlement meets a certain limit, they will settle before merits are even discussed.
Ive been involved with city lawyers on construction accidents, and even if the person hurt has ZERO case they will often settle if the price is right.
Maybe
Maybe not
I haven't heard any compelling argument for infringing on the protesters Constitutional right to assemble peacefully.
But if NYC is happy and the protesters are happy, then I certainly have no beefs.
Did you miss the part where they were on private land? That alone bars them from doing what they were doing. Further, the right to assemble DOES NOT mean you have the right to live perpetually in a public spot or infringe on others use of that land. That is not assembly. That is squatting. There is no clear way to determine the line BUT there is little legal case for them to make demands on property unless the police did not do their due diligence in safeguarding the property. I dont know the details but it really does sound pretty thin for the OWS.
Nope it was public land in that it had been designated for public use. A protest is public use.