"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech ...
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble ..." from the
First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 1791

"A person commits disorderly conduct when he knowingly ... fails to obey
a lawful order of dispersal by a person known to him to be a peace officer
under circumstances where three or more persons are committing acts of
disorderly conduct in the immediate vicinity, which acts are likely to cause
substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm; ..."
from the City of Chicago Municipal Code, statute 8-4-010(D)

Suit filed April 6, 2006 in the US District Court   page 1   page 2   page 3   page 4   page 5   page 6   page 7  

A word of thanks to Dan Sloan, the hero behind the camera whose idealism
and sense of civic duty led him to document this episode demonstrating the
systematic and flagrant abuse by the City of Chicago of free speech rights
guaranteed by the Constitution. There were other people with cameras present
who were too intimidated by the heavily armed and armored para-military force
to take any pictures. Furthermore, he risked his own arrest by speaking up
while the incident was happening. He came up to me a week later at 3030 W.
Cortland and introduced himself, sent me his pictures, and enabled justice
to be served in this one small incident, one among hundreds and thousands of
examples in which there is no documentation of wrongdoing by 'peace officers'
who are supposed to 'serve and protect' but instead 'incite and provoke'.  
In addition I am immensely indebted to Melinda Power, the attorney from West
Town Community Law who represented me and deftly negotiated a settlement,
also a member of the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild which is
handling the class action from the March 20, 2003 mass arrests.