The Minneapolis city attorney's office has decided to pay seven zombies and their attorney $165,000.
The payout, approved by the City Council on Friday, settles a federal lawsuit the seven filed after they were arrested and jailed for two days for dressing up like zombies in downtown Minneapolis on July 22, 2006, to protest "mindless" consumerism.
When arrested at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street N., most of them had thick white powder and fake blood on their faces and dark makeup around their eyes. They were walking in a stiff, lurching fashion and carrying four bags of sound equipment to amplify music from an iPod when they were arrested by police who said they were carrying equipment that simulated "weapons of mass destruction."
However, they were never charged with any crime.
Although U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen had dismissed the zombies' lawsuit, it was resurrected in February by a three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded that police lacked probable cause to arrest the seven, a decision setting the stage for a federal trial this fall. The settlement means there will be no trial.
"I feel great that the city is being held accountable for the actions of their police," said Raphi Rechitsky, 27, of Minneapolis, one of the seven zombies, who said he and his friends were performing street theater when they were arrested. He is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota. ...
Police asked for the zombies' identification, and when most said they had none on them, they were told they would be detained.
One of the zombies, Jake Sternberg, later testified that police Sgt. E.T. Nelson told the zombies at the police station that he didn't care about their constitutional rights, using two obscenities, according to court records. ..
via Minneapolis will pay $165,000 to zombies | StarTribune.com.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Minneapolis will pay $165,000 to zombies
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2 comments:
Of course Raphi feels great about the settlement; he banked a couple thousand bucks for dressing up like a zombie; and fighting, ironically, mindless consumerism. We hope Raphi does something meaningful with his settlement money; we’d hate to see a zombie not practice what they preach.
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/08/minneapolis-zombies-win-lawsuit/
If evenly distributed, $7,000 for each of the 7 zombies isn't that much money, really. (A play with sevens, I wonder if that's why they chose the $165,000 figure?)
The zombie thing is so misunderstood, already it's being related to "real" zombies. At cracked.com David Dietle writes, "7 Scientific [sic and note!] Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly)," which includes such things as they have too many natural predators, they can't take the heat or the cold ... etc. It's hardly related our meaningless, mindless corporate-supporting consumerism, which blinds to us buy and buy what really, really don't often don't need and worse don't even want after a short while.
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