How much is a library worth? In the case of the Occupy Movement’s “People’s Library,” the answer is tens of thousands of dollars.
Earlier this month, New York City agreed to pay a settlement fee of $47,000 for the destruction of 5,500 books that were ruined when city police forces cleared Occupy’s main encampment at Zuccotti Park in November of 2011. The city has also agreed to pay an additional $186,350 for Occupy Wall Street’s lawyers’ fees.
“Our clients are pleased,” Norman Siegel, counsel for the plaintiffs in Occupy Wall Street vs. City of New York/Michael Bloomberg, told The Village Voice. “We had asked for damages of $47,000 for the books and the computers, and we got $47,000. More important—we would not have settled without this—is the language in the settlement. This was not just about money, it was about constitutional rights and the destruction of books.”
“The city also agreed to pay $75,000 for the destruction of property of Global Revolutions TV, a media outfit that was active in the park, along with $49,850 in lawyers’ fees and costs, as well as $8,500 to Time’s Up New York [a Brooklyn-based environmental non-profit], which lost bicycle generators in the raid,” The Village Voice continues.
A copy of the settlement has been posted online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/135002275/Occupy-Wall-St-v-City-of-New-York-Settlement.
