NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP and Stecklow & Thompson announce that a Civil Rights Class Action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of all persons wrongfully arrested while engaged in the Occupy Wall Street protests without criminal conduct on September 15, 16 or 17, 2012, in downtown Manhattan during the First Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.

The Class Action alleges that the City of New York, former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and certain senior members of the NYPD implemented a policy and practice of arresting individuals engaged in expressive speech activity absent criminal conduct in violation of each individual’s right to protest and speak under the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unlawful searches and seizures.

As alleged in the lawsuit, the NYPD’s widespread constitutional abuses occurred during the First Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in September 2012 as a result of the deliberate disregard and indifference of the City of New York and the other named defendants to, among other things, the thousands of arrests that were dismissed the previous year; the multiple lawsuits launched in response to those arrests; and the scathing reports detailing the NYPD’s unlawful policies and practices used towards the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As a result of the alleged deliberate disregard and indifference, the constitutional rights of many of the protestors at the First Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street were trampled as they were arrested at random without probable cause or engaging in criminal conduct.  The Plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of all those who were wrongfully arrested under a subsection of P.L. 240.20 from September 15 to September 17, 2012, and seek to redress Defendants’ violations of their rights under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP has extensive experience in the prosecution of class action litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country.  The firm has attorneys in various practice areas; and offices in New York, Chicago and San Diego.  The reputation and expertise of this firm in class litigation has been repeatedly recognized by the courts nationwide, and also within the city of New York, having represented the tenants in New York City’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village housing complexes to recover one of the largest tenant settlements in United States history.

Stecklow & Thompson is a downtown, boutique civil rights firm that was retained by the Occupy General Assembly in September 2011, and since the November 15, 2011 eviction, has litigated multiple lawsuits against the City of New York and NYPD on behalf of Occupy Wall Street participants.  Most notably among these lawsuits was the resolution in Peat et al v. City of New York, the largest settlement in an Occupy related case at the time of its settlement in June 2014.

If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions regarding your rights and interests in this case, please immediately contact Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP by telephone at (800) 575-0735, via e-mail at classmember@whafh.com, or visit our website at www.whafh.com.  All e-mail correspondence should make reference to the “First Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.”

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