"The city has agreed to pay $2,007,000 to end a lawsuit brought by 52 people who were swept up in a mass
arrest along a Midtown sidewalk during a protest against the invasion of Iraq.  The arrests were made on April 7, 2003, during the opening days of the invasion of Iraq and right after the city persuaded the Republican Party to hold its 2004 convention in New York. The people arrested said their rights to free speech had been abused, and sued the city and the police. Now, five years later, the $2 million settlement is only part of the bonfire of legal expenses. And only some of the costs from this episode involve money."

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