Four councillors sued New York authorities on Monday over the handling of the Occupy Wall Street protests.
The city and police violated demonstrators' free speech rights, used excessive force, arrested protesters on dubious charges and interfered with journalists' and council members' efforts to observe what was going on, the four City Council members and others say in the federal civil rights suit.
"This unlawful conduct has been undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring and retaliating against the plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected protest activity," says the suit.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended police handling of the protests, but the councillors say police were so heavy-handed an independent monitor is needed.
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