Charlie_Brennan's Blog

Protesters who took to the streets of Denver during the Democratic National Convention vowed today to pursue federal lawsuits against the City and County of Denver for alleged acts of brutality and violations of their free speech rights during the party's four-day assembly last month.

They gathered at the office of attorney David Lane to announce plans for their lawsuit, which they intend to file after the protesters first seek to have any criminal charges filed against them during the DNC protests are resolved - preferably, they said, by having them dismissed.

"We will take these officers and the city and county of Denver into federal district court as soon as we get it all sorted out," Lane said Tuesday. "We will seek damages from the City and County of Denver, which is unfortunate that taxpayers have to foot the bill for police misconduct. But, when there is police misconduct of this nature, we will not tolerate it and we will go after those officers."

Specific incidents triggering the threatened legal actions include the corralling between phalanxes of police of several hundred people, including pedestrians not part of any organized protest, in the vicinity of 15th Steet and Cleveland Place the evening of Aug. 25, the first night of the convention.

That incident led to the arrest of more than 100 protesters, but many people not connected to protest activity complained of being trapped there by police, with no way of escaping the crowd.

Lane and his clients also focused on the convention protest arrest of Code Pink Activist Alicia Forrest, who was captured being knocked to the ground by a baton-wielding officer after a heated verbal exchange.

"She is part of this, and we are coming after that police officer with every legal means available to us," said Lane, who termed the episode a case of second-degree assault on the part of the officer, whom he did not identify.

"Had a protester done that to a police officer, that protester would be lucky to be live right now."

Glenn Spagnuolo, a co-founder and spokesman for the activist group Recreate 68 said, "There was a systematic attempt by the Denver Police Department to suppress the rights of American citizens to engage in dissent during the DNC, ranging from illegal searches of vehicles that were bringing signs to rallies and protests, to having signs confiscated, to issues of police brutality."

He added, "There were stories made by the mayor's office to create this atmosphere that the people who were arrested were engaging in criminal behaviors, and were criminal elements that came to disrupt the DNC - when they were really just American citizens who were coming to protest."

The office of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper on Tuesday declined to comment on any pending litigation against the city. However, in the wake of the DNC, the city released a statement in which Hickenlooper applauded the conduct of police, the city's public works department, and other agencies involved in attempting to maintain the peace during a week in which there had been threats of up to 50,000 people taking to the streets during the convention, some with the stated goal of disrupting the proceedings.

Police recorded 152 arrests during the DNC, although only 134 are known with certainty to have been related to political protests.