R68 to plan party, troll for lawsuits

Colorado Indymedia:

Two important announcements:

1. R-68 will be hosting a short meeting to plan a post cenvention [sic] party for radicals in addition to checking in on how the community is doing and what our next steps will be to continue the momentum created during the DNC.

Momentum?

When: Thursday, 9/11, 6:30pm
Where: Common Grounds Coffee Shop, 1601 17th Street, Denver (on the corner of Wynkoop and 17th)

2. Recreate 68 working with David Lane, a prominent civil rights attorney, about civil suits resulting from some of the police actions during the DNC. As some of you may know, illegal police actions at some of the previous national conventions and other large protests (for example, the FTAA actions in Miami) have resulted in six- and seven-figure payouts by the cities involved. There's no guarantee of similar monetary awards in these cases, but we will still be able to hold the city of Denver and the police officers involved accountable for its violations of the civil rights of demonstrators and of people who simply got caught up in police actions.

We need to gather information relating to three specific incidents:

1) The illegal arrests and detentions on Monday evening, August 25, on 15th Street between Court and Cleveland.

2) The arrests of Carlo Garcia and Alicia Forrest in and near Civic Center Park on Tuesday, August 26.

Of course, Zombie witnessed that whole stupid incident(s).

3) The pretext stops of vehicles associated with the convergence center on Monday and Tuesday.

We understand that several vehicles were stopped and searched by police shortly after leaving the convergence center, but no citations were issued, and that a truck or van carrying signs and banners was stopped and impounded and held for more than 24 hours sometime during the DNC. . . .

4) The illegal siezure [sic] of materials at the convergence center in relation to the incident when the Denver Police Department bulldozed material on private property rented by R-68 and Unconventional Denver.

Bulldozed? Not sure, but I don't think the "convergence center" (out on Brighton Boulevard) was where the cops allegedly found bags of feces and bottles of urine, so who knows what they "bulldozed."

Update: "Glen" Spagnuolo, interviewed by KGNU, says R68 is planning three, four, "maybe even five" lawsuits, and claims Garcia's lip was cut and Forrest was knocked unconscious during the August 26 protest.

Update II: R68 had a press conference at David Lane's office to announce the lawsuit push, and the Rocky covered it. One protester, Alex Bryan,

said police bulldozed their protest signs in the parking lot at a "convergence center" for Re-create 68 and Unconventional Denver in a rented warehouse at 4301 Brighton Blvd.

"This was a calculated, aggressive effort at intimidation against people exercising their legally protected rights of free expression," he said.

Update III: TheHill.com adds:

The ACLU of Colorado has written letters to the Denver City Attorney and the Denver Sheriff’s department complaining about the conditions in which those detained were kept. They say police did not provide all of the arrested protesters with access to legal representation and kept them in uncomfortable physical conditions, including extremely cold holding cells.

“I’m thinking we should watch what we ask for, because in our early letters to the city we were emphasizing that they needed to think about air conditioning, and now we’re complaining that there’s too much air conditioning,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado, pointing to the irony of the situation.

Now I have to include the scream (brought to you by MGM).