http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nonlethal15aug15,1,23053.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Three people injured when Los Angeles police officers shot them with beanbags and rubber bullets during an anti-police protest will receive more than $261,000 in damages from the city, the Los Angeles Times reports. Xochitl Estrada, 23; Noluthando Williams, 26; and Brad Olson, 43, will share the payout resulting from an Oct. 22, 2000, protest at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.
Police broke up the demonstration after some protesters threw bottles, vandalized a bus stop and yelled obscenities. Attorney James S. Muller said the three who filed suit were exercising their free-speech rights when they were hit by projectiles fired by officers who did not distinguish between innocent people and a few troublemakers in the crowd. “If your kids don’t clear the table, do you punch them in the mouth?” Muller asked. “[The response was] disproportionate to what people were doing out there.”
Estrada, a student who sustained permanent injury to an eye, will receive $200,000. Williams, a youth programs consultant who was also shot in the face, will be awarded $35,000. Olson, a contractor shot while accompanying his teenage son and son’s friend to the protest, will receive $26,500.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nonlethal15aug15,1,23053.story?coll=la-headlines-california