New York police violated rights of Occupy protesters: report

(Reuters) - New York police officers employed excessive force, unjustified arrests and pervasive surveillance in violation of the rights of Occupy Wall Street protesters, a report from a group of human rights lawyers said on Wednesday.

 

The report documents 130 incidents of alleged abuse by law enforcement authorities and calls for the creation of an independent inspector general to monitor the New York Police Department.

"Many of the reported allegations individually indicate clear violations of the government's obligation to uphold assembly and expression rights," said the report by the Global Justice Clinic at New York University's School of Law and the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic at Fordham Law School.

"When considered together, a complex mapping of protest suppression emerges."

Constant police surveillance of Occupy events in some cases appears to violate legal restrictions on police monitoring of protests, known as the "Handschu Guidelines" after the landmark case that led to their creation, the report said.

The intimidation and use of force served to escalate tensions while having a chilling effect on the right to free speech and assembly, the authors concluded.