Mass Arrests

The American Civil Liberties Union says it filed suit over the mass arrests of 430 police brutality protesters to vindicate the innocent and preserve 1st Amendment rights. Defendants in the suit include the city, Mayor Frank Jordan, former Police Chief Richard Hongisto and several police commanders. The San Francisco demonstrators took part in a march a week after riots erupted in the wake of the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case.

Officials surveyed damage Sunday from a volatile Occupy protest that resulted in hundreds of arrests the day before and left the historic City Hall vandalized after demonstrators broke into the building, smashed display cases, cut electrical wires and burned an American flag. Police placed the number of arrests at about 400 from Saturday's daylong protest — the most contentious since authorities dismantled the Occupy Oakland encampment late last year. Mayor Jean Quan condemned the local movement's tactics as "a constant provocation of the police with a lot of violence toward them" and said the demonstrations were draining scarce resources from an already strapped city.

Immigration agents simultaneously raided three garment plants Tuesday and arrested 126 workers suspected of being illegal immigrants in what federal officials called one of the largest mass arrests in Orange County in recent years. At 9 a.m., three dozen Immigration and Naturalization Service agents surprised workers at plants in Fountain Valley and Santa Ana, all operated by the Just Important People company.

Egyptians voted in parliamentary elections Sunday amid a crackdown on opposition candidates that is certain to tighten the ruling party's grip on a nation angry over economic problems and anxious about next year's presidential poll. Opponents accused the ruling National Democratic Party of bribing voters and stuffing ballot boxes to weaken the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition bloc. Hundreds of Brotherhood members were recently arrested and it appeared the Islamist group might lose half its seats in parliament.

Saying New York had created its "own little Guantanamo on the Hudson" during the Republican National Convention, a lawyer filed a lawsuit on behalf of nearly 2,000 people arrested at demonstrations. The federal lawsuit filed by Jonathan C.

Soviet riot police broke up a demonstration in downtown Moscow by members of the dissident Democratic Union and arrested 17 people in the second such clash in two weeks, a spokesman said. The official Tass news agency said that the demonstration, involving about 40 union members and called to mark the 70th anniversary of the "Red Terror," was illegal and the police action justified. It said those arrested resembled "a Gypsy band" that shouted "incoherent slogans" of "an anti-state character."

Former Police Chief Richard Hongisto committed civil rights violations in the removal of a newspaper from its racks, a jury found Friday. The panel decided Hongisto and two officers committed the violations by removing from news racks 2,000 copies of a free newspaper that lampooned the chief for ordering mass arrests of demonstrators after the verdict in the first Rodney G. King trial. A cartoon showed the chief in a lewd pose. The U.S.

Mayor Sandy Freedman, elected to her first full term with 66% of the vote, said Wednesday her landslide victory showed that her administration had properly handled three nights of recent racial violence. Freedman carried all but one of the city's 78 precincts Tuesday in a five-way, nonpartisan race, becoming the first woman elected mayor of Tampa. She took over the job in July when then-Mayor Bob Martinez resigned to devote his time to his successful gubernatorial campaign.

I couldn't believe my ears on New Year's Eve. I thought I was in Panama or Beirut. Every New Year's Eve it gets worse and worse. I have never heard such a cacophony of small arms, pistols, assault rifles, AK-47s and Uzis. And all this just two blocks from the Santa Ana police station on Ross Street. And not just at midnight, but from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Some must have been celebrating New Year's for Arizona and then Hawaii. It goes like this. First a poor dude gets out there with his six-shooter and fires off a quick six. Everybody counts.

Joseph lodge, a Superior Court judge in Santa Barbara County who was elected to the bench in 1958 and became one of the longest-serving jurists in California history, died Monday at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 76. The cause of death was complications from lymphoma, his wife, Sheila, said. Lodge, who taught at UC Santa Barbara throughout most of his law career, was known for his liberal judgments and his sometimes unconventional manner. He was a judge until recent months. His most publicized case, in June 1970, involved more than 300 people who were arrested during a demonstration in Santa Barbara's Perfect Park.

Joseph lodge, a Superior Court judge in Santa Barbara County who was elected to the bench in 1958 and became one of the longest-serving jurists in California history, died Monday at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 76. The cause of death was complications from lymphoma, his wife, Sheila, said. Lodge, who taught at UC Santa Barbara throughout most of his law career, was known for his liberal judgments and his sometimes unconventional manner. He was a judge until recent months. His most publicized case, in June 1970, involved more than 300 people who were arrested during a demonstration in Santa Barbara's Perfect Park.

Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan in 1950 to suspend the right to habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty, according to a newly released document. Hoover wanted President Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage" and sent the plan to the White House 12 days after the start of the Korean War, the New York Times reported today, citing the now declassified document.

For a nation steeped in political crisis, life seems remarkably calm out on the sun-dappled streets. Women haggle in the market. Shopkeepers trade the daily dish while smoking cigarettes and spitting jets of betel juice. Traffic moves at a crawl, when it moves at all, which is business as usual on the clogged roads of this densely packed capital.

Uzbek authorities pressed forward Monday with arrests of people suspected of involvement in clashes and demonstrations in the eastern city of Andijon last week, as the government sought to deflect criticism of its deadly crackdown on protesters. "At least 70 organizers of the riots in Andijon" have been detained, the Russian news agency Interfax reported, paraphrasing remarks made by Interior Minister Zakir Almatov to officials from Andijon who were visiting the capital, Tashkent.

Hundreds of villagers in the Indian-held part of Kashmir waged street battles with police after 90 people were arrested and charged with torching an army bus and an Islamic seminary. Protesters poured into the streets of Mattan, 40 miles south of Srinagar, to demonstrate against last week's arrests for the fire in a nearby village. No one was injured in the blaze.

Saying New York had created its "own little Guantanamo on the Hudson" during the Republican National Convention, a lawyer filed a lawsuit on behalf of nearly 2,000 people arrested at demonstrations. The federal lawsuit filed by Jonathan C.

Officials surveyed damage Sunday from a volatile Occupy protest that resulted in hundreds of arrests the day before and left the historic City Hall vandalized after demonstrators broke into the building, smashed display cases, cut electrical wires and burned an American flag. Police placed the number of arrests at about 400 from Saturday's daylong protest — the most contentious since authorities dismantled the Occupy Oakland encampment late last year. Mayor Jean Quan condemned the local movement's tactics as "a constant provocation of the police with a lot of violence toward them" and said the demonstrations were draining scarce resources from an already strapped city.

Hundreds of villagers in the Indian-held part of Kashmir waged street battles with police after 90 people were arrested and charged with torching an army bus and an Islamic seminary. Protesters poured into the streets of Mattan, 40 miles south of Srinagar, to demonstrate against last week's arrests for the fire in a nearby village. No one was injured in the blaze.

Former Police Chief Richard Hongisto committed civil rights violations in the removal of a newspaper from its racks, a jury found Friday. The panel decided Hongisto and two officers committed the violations by removing from news racks 2,000 copies of a free newspaper that lampooned the chief for ordering mass arrests of demonstrators after the verdict in the first Rodney G. King trial. A cartoon showed the chief in a lewd pose. The U.S.

In one of the largest mass arrests of its kind in the nation, immigration agents raided a Vans Inc. shoe manufacturing plant early Thursday and arrested 233 workers suspected of being illegal immigrants. At 8 a.m., 60 Immigration and Naturalization Service agents surprised workers at the company's Orange plant at 2900 Batavia St. INS spokesman John Brechtel said almost all of the arrested employees are suspected of being Mexican nationals who were working with false documents.