Occupy Wall Street Librarians Sue NYC Officials

By Jason Boog 

The Occupy Wall Street movement and OWS librarians have sued New York City in federal court over the destruction of the Occupy Wall Street Library during a late-night raid on Zuccotti Park.

The suit names mayor Michael Bloomberg, police commissioner Ray Kelly and sanitation commissioner John Doherty. According to the lawsuit (filed late last week), the city confiscated 3,600 books on November 15, 2011, but the city only returned 1,003 of the books. We’ve embedded the complete complaint below–what do you think?

Check it out: “We believe that the raid and its aftermath violated our First-Amendment rights to free expression, Fourth-Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure, and Fourteenth-Amendment rights to due process, as well as the laws of the City of New York regarding the vouchsafing of seized property. We are demanding compensatory damages for the lost/destroyed books and equipment, which we have estimated at at least $47,000. In addition, because we believe the seizure and destruction of the books went beyond negligence to constitute a reckless and callous indifference to our constitutional rights, we are demanding punitive damages of at least $1,000.”

OWS vs. The City of New York