Two members of Occupy D.C. have filed a lawsuit against the D.C. police department over their arrest outside Merrill Lynch last month.
The protesters, Kelly Canavan and Samuel Dukore, pitched a tent outside the wealth management firm’s District headquarters Feb. 13 — just over a week after the National Park Service had cleared most Occupy tents from McPherson Square — to advocate for banking reform.
They were arrested, police said, for violating a District law that prohibits constructing a temporary abode on a sidewalk. In their lawsuit, Canavan and Dukore contend that they shouldn’t have been arrested because their tent didn’t contain sleeping materials, wasn’t blocking the sidewalk and was clearly designated as a symbolic representation of their protest.
Lawsuits involving Occupiers have had limited success in court. A federal judge ruled late last year that protesters had to be given 24 hours notice before the National Park Service attempted an eviction, thanks to last-minute court filings by attorney Jeffery Light, who is also representing Canavan and Dukore in their lawsuit.
