Another huge settlement for DC in a mass arrest case -- Pershing Park

On 9/27/02, the day before a major IMF/World Bank demonstration in Washington, police arrested about 400 people at a smaller demonstration in Pershing Park, downtown. Many were hogtied; some were held as long as 24 hours. The incident received relatively little media attention at the time.

Since then, a few individual plaintiffs have won settlements from the city. Now, the class action case has come through. Late Monday, the city agreed to an $8.2 million settlement (not quite as big as the $13.7 mil record settlement the other week in the A16 arrests case). The payouts in this case, like that one, will be about $18,000 each.

City Paper has the rundown. And here's the Post's story up late this afternoon. And here's the City Paper's exhaustive coverage of the Pershing Park case over the years.

Update: I should mention, they were hogtied to prevent fornication, the police officials (including Cathy Lanier, now the chief) had argued. Obvi!