D.C. Police Agree to Protest Settlement

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DURING PRESIDENT BUSH'S first inauguration in 2001, Metropolitan Police Department officers detailed to protect the parade route and control protesters operated under "suspended rules limiting the use of force during the protests, had pressed undercover officers to infiltrate protest groups and had sought to provoke protesters and uninvolved bystanders by attacking them with batons and pepper spray," The Post's Carol D. Leonnig reports today. Those revelations came to light under a lawsuit that has been settled, requiring the MPD to pay $685,000 and offically change its tactics.

According to a news release, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer with the Partnership for Civil Justice said that after five years in litigation, "this is a victory for the First Amendment rights of all people who seek to protest in the capital of the United States without police brutality and disruption of assembly." It also "makes clear that protestors cannot be swept off the streets regardless of whether they have permits," something that became an issue during the now-infamous 2002 Pershing Park arrests, for which Chief Charles Ramsey has been forced to apologize for.

Verheyden-Hilliard, pictured here in a photo outside the Prettyman Federal Court House in 2001, tells The Post that her group's efforts helped persuade the D.C. Council to enact legislation to rein in the police department.

The District government is mum on the settlement, as is Ramsey, who won't comment because "other lawsuits are pending," The Post reports.

» "Police Agree to Protester Reforms" [WaPo]
» "I Am Sorry. We Will Do Better." [WaPo]

Photo by Carol Guzy/The Washington Post