New York City has been sued by Occupy Wall Street because of 2,800 books that were not returned or were damaged when police officers removed protestors back in November from Zuccotti Park. The complaint was filed this week in federal court in Manhattan. The complaint alleges that the city destroyed or damaged the majority of the books that were donated to the ‘People’s Library,’ which had been constructed in the park during the protests.
Zuccotti Park was the headquarters for the protestors until November 15, when the protestors camping in the park were thrown out by police officers. The park is not too far from Wall Street in lower Manhattan. The complaint claims that after the protestors were told to leave the park, there were 26 trucks filled with any property they had left in the park. Those trucks were operated by city sanitation employees. The complaint says that also not returned were computers, random equipment and furnishings for the library.
Occupy Wall Street is asking for at least $48,000 in damages and a declaration from the court that the rights of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were violated under U.S. and New York State constitutions. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty were also sued in the complaint.
The group claims that it has received just 1,003 of the 3,600 books that were in the library in the park during the protests. The group claims that 201 of those books are unusable now because they suffered so much damage.