The claims by 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters who alleged the police entrapped them by leading them to believe they were allowed to walk onto the Brooklyn Bridge’s roadway on Oct. 1, 2011, survived a motion to dismiss yesterday. Southern District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected New York City’s motion to dismiss claims against individual officers in Garcia v. Bloomberg, 11 Civ. 6957. “Prudence, and respect for the constitutional rights to free speech and free association…dictate that the legal system cut all non-violent protesters a fair amount of slack,” Rakoff wrote.
However, the judge granted the Law Department’s motion to dismiss against the city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. In arguing the motion to dismiss, the NYPD showed a video it had taken of the march showing an officer giving instructions to the marchers using a bullhorn. But Rakoff said it was apparent that many protesters could not hear the instructions and the officers made no effort to stop them from moving onto the roadway, which gave the marchers the belief they had permission to do so. The amended complaint, the judge ruled yesterday, adequately alleged “that the individuals and the great majority of the plaintiff class failed to receive fair warning.”
