In 2003 the St. Louis police department raided the homes of several potential protestors of the World Agriculture Forum held in St. Louis that year. After six years worth of lawsuit, the hippies got the cops to settle and, like all bad little boys that do illegal searches do, write an apology letter:
The department sincerely regrets the grievances of plaintiffs arising from the department’s response to the May 2003 World Agriculture Forum including the extended detentions or damages of personal property of the plaintiffs. Infringement of civil liberties of the citizenry was not warranted by what may have transpired at protests in other cities. The department recognizes and values the importance of civil discourse
Somewhere there’s a black guy reading this going “Since when?!”
Each of the four hippies will receive $13,500. Now what are you supposed to say when you take money from a city and department that doesn’t have any? Oh yeah…
“Money was never the medium of exchange for our clients,” [The Plaintiff’s lawyer] said. “The six-year court battle was to prove they were deprived of their constitutional rights. The letter from the police board is that proof.”
Seriously though, if the cops rolled up on my place and any of the crap they had done to them I would be pretty pissed:
- Damaged property slashed bike tires and drenched clothing with urine at one raided building.
- Detained a dozen circus performers for riding bicycles without a license — a rarely cited violation taken off the law books two years earlier.
- Pulled activists out of a van and told them they were violating the seat belt law. The driver was taken in on drug charges for what turned out to be vitamins, her lawyer said.
- Planned raids with a building inspector on at least two buildings that were housing local and visiting activists and arrested 15 people for staying there.
That is just not cool and shouldn’t happen to anyone.
…I mean unless they did something really bad like if they cut me off on the street or something.
via STLToday.com