From Democracy Now
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund has announced an unprecedented settlement with the Obama administration to change the way the U.S. Park Police conduct mass arrests. The deal follows 12 years of litigation over the arrests of nearly 400 demonstrators, tourists, bystanders and legal observers during protests against the World Bank on September 27, 2002, when the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, working with Park Police, trapped and arrested everyone inside Pershing Park. The new policies agreed to by Park Police under the $2.2. million settlement prohibit police lines to encircle protesters, require specific probable cause for each arrest, and mandate fair notice and multiple warnings before arrests are made. In a statement, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund said, “If these reforms can be enacted here in the Nation’s Capital, they can and should be implemented in cities across the nation.”