The first round of $$$ settlements—out of the several dozen legal claims that have come out of the May Day melee— was approved today by the Los Angeles City Council.
The Council voted to okay $12.85 million to be paid to a group of plaintiff’s injured by the baton wielding, “less-than-lethal” projectile-shooting officers who waded into crowds of demonstrators, families and journalists on May 1st, 2007, in MacArthur Park.
The May Day incident has thus far resulted in more than 300 claims and lawsuits. The $12.85 million settlement covers 297 individuals who were part of eight consolidated cases filed in federal court.
According to civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, who represented several groups of plaintiffs, the settlement is the largest single payout in a demonstration case anywhere in the country.
This settlement covers nearly all of the cases filed, except the journalists injured, who have separate cases pending in state court.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and U.S. District Judge Howard Matz, also have to approve the settlement, but with the Council giving the settlement its unanimous approval, it is all but certain that Mayor AV and the judge will approve as well.
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UPDATE: I was curious as to how the settlement was structured, so to find out I talked to Jorge Gonzales, one of the attorneys who represented a bunch of the clients.
Jorge said that the attorneys involved arrived at a system in which they sorted claims into five different categories—-ranging from people who were physically injured by police at the high end, to individuals at the lower end who were mostly emotionally traumatized by the situation—-parents with kids who are now having nightmares and that sort of thing—but who did not sustain physical injuries.
Then there was also a special segment of claimants who fell outside of the main five general categories. For instance, Jorge said, there was one woman who was not only struck and injured by police, but as a consequence of being struck had a miscarriage. “She was taken to the hospital on May Day and her baby died the next day. ”
Sadly, the MacArthur Park mess produced two miscarriages.
Other examples of those slotted into the “extraordinary” category included some elderly people whose contact with police that day produced lasting physical injuries due to broken bones and the like.
After assigning a category to each plaintiff, the attorneys then attempted to assign a dollar amount to each category—-with the plaintiffs in the special category assessed individually. Those group numbers were totaled, attorneys’ fees were included, plus a reserve fund for people who might still come forward—and pretty soon one is looking at $12.85 million.
I asked Jorge to give me an idea of what the payout might mean in dollars and cents to an individual plaintiff. While he didn’t want to disclose exact $ amounts, he told me that for a category five person—meaning someone who was clearly physically injured but whose injuries were not as severe as the special group—the payout was likely to be in five figures—say $40,000.
According to Gonzales, the settlement also includes an order that requires the LAPD to make certain policy changes to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
“But to tell you the truth,” Jorge said. “The LAPD has already made a lot of those changes—in training methods and things like that. Bratton really stepped up to the plate on this one,” said Jorge. “I give him credit.”
Paying settlement money to an illegal alien in that park is like accepting blame when an illegal without a license, and who has no business on the road, hits you. Nothing happens if they reside where they should be legally.
Woody, and so you know that the plaintiff’s aren’t legal residents how exactly?
By the way, a more correct analogy using your driving idea would be if you are driving blind drunk and you swerve into the wrong lane going 90 mph and hit someone who is driving the speed speed limit—but who doesn’t have a driver’s license—and you kill them, you will still go to prison for a very long time, as well you should.
A Better Analogy
1) A bunch of people break into your house, while you are at work.
2) You look the other way since they mow the lawn and clean the house.
3) They decide to have a party in your back yard on May 1.
4) You call the cops to make sure things don’t get out of hand.
5) The police come and some of the partiers start throwing rocks and beer bottles.
6) The head of the police commands the crowd of partiers to disperse using bull horns.
7) Partiers either ignore the police command or didn’t hear it.
8) The police start dispersing the crowd and injure a few of the partiers with their batons.
9) The partiers sue YOU because you called the police and the police got too rough.
10) You have to pay the partiers, the people who broke into your house $12 million dollars, which prevents you from sending 1000 of your deserving kids to college.
Moral of the story: Kick the people out of your house who don’t belong there.
The smiley face is supposed to be an eight.
Woody*Pokey*Arizona Minutemen,
Dudes, like so sorry your stupid Cardinals lost the Super Bowl; just like your stupid homeboy Grandpa McCain lost the election. Like act your ages, pleeeaze.
Well anyone with any brains knew this was coming, the old LAPD days of attack, beat the shit out anybody who gets in the way, arrest anyone who dares talk back for battery on an officer, claim they were Reds, Anarchists, long haired hippies, or just not white, are dead, good riddance!
And good for Chief Bratton for man-ing up and apologizing to the people and taxpayers,for getting rid of the bonehead dinosaurs who were supposed to be in charge, roasting the ass’s of the cops who went upside the head of not only innocent demonstrators but many in the national and international press.
General George Armstrong Custer and his Calvary charge at the Little Bighorn backfired on his ass and so did the LAPD charge at MAcArthur Park.
And to those who arrogantly claimed “don’t sweat it nothing will happen to the LAPD over this”, to paraphrase Oliver Hardy “well here’s another fine mess you got us into”.
Give me a friggin’ break. I hope they got 10 cents for that.
“Woody, and so you know that the plaintiff’s aren’t legal residents how exactly?”
Woody is a racist. He just knows. He can tell from time zones away.
The “May Day” rally at McArthur Park is actually a rally by mostly illegal aliens seeking changes to immigration laws. It doesn’t take a genius to know for a fact that a large percentage if not the majority at the “May Day” rally are illegal aliens, it also doesn’t take a genius to know that McArthur Park is fake I.D. Central for illegal aliens.
Celeste (in #2), while the drunk driver should go to jail, he would not have hit the other driver if that driver was obeying the law in the first place and had not been driving without a license. At least the drunk driver got another illegal off of the highways. But, your analogy is wrong on one point. Illegals usually have eight or ten occupants per vehicle.
Did anyone get the cake out of the rain in McArthur Park? I never have understood that.
Other countries have immigration problems, too. Maybe liberals would want to lick these illegal immigrants.
Chocolate stowaways at Mars factory
You should be aware that the rest of the country is laughing at you, LA. you’ve been saturated to the point where your courts are impotent and your police no longer wield any sway. Maybe it’s time to render the state unto the conquering worms. Sheriff Joe Arpaio had it right when he herded the illegals through town on their way to his detention center out in the Arizona sun with the green bologna sandwiches and the tepid tap water. A fitting place to contemplate. Governor Arnold should give Calderon a call and offer up the keys to your City. Oh hell, that’s right Tony Villar holds those, hey. That’s a good start.
I just love to read posts from people outside LA who probably have only seen it on TV or from as distance during their school trip to Disneyland and think they can sum it up in a couple of nasty, ignorant, intolerant comments.
If our city is so bad, then why do 4 million LEGAL citizens want to live here, including some of the richest, most creative and most beautiful people in the world? Why do people risk their lives to get here illegally? Because this is the best place on Earth, my friend. What you read in the papers and see on TV (and hear on your late night talk radio shows) can’t capture the soul of LA.
Perhaps the rest of the country might be laughing at LA, which sets the culture tone for the rest of the WORLD, but we’re laughing right back — all the way to the bank.
So you nasty, creepy posters from whatever dreary or cold place that is not LA railing about “illegals” as somehow taking over this city, this is for you: You’re right. LA is terrible, like hell on Earth. Please, for the love of God, stay away. Far away. And your little dog, too.
MS MG
I am one who left LA, and would not go back today, even though I greatly miss some aspects of it. Do not assume that only ignorant people are criticizing LA. The vast influx of former Californians (mostly from LA) here into Arizona is testimony to that.
If Woody just knows everyone at the May Day debacle was illegal, why can’t I just know everyone who lives in Arizona is a racist moron?
My abuelita cooks menudo and nopales for her neighbors every sunday morning and she lives in Arizona, my abuelita is NOT a racist moron !!!!!!
American groups that pick May Day for protests are ususally commie hippies.
Justice at last. 2 women has miscarriages because of this terrorist attack by the LAPD, but as long as they have badges, I guess they’re legit. The money to pay the survivors of the event should come out of the LAPD budget and not the City. The police dept. should be reduced to 50% it’s current size to pay off this debt, and the other 50% should be laid off with the left over funds going to education programs for the ignorant white illegals from Europe who have no knowledge of how important these undocumented people are to their survival.