Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Judge: Mass Arrests At 2004 Republican National Convention Were Illegal
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 2, 2012
Modified Oct 21, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Jake Dobkin/Gothamist
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 2, 2012
Modified Oct 21, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
A federal judge ruled yesterday that the NYPD's mass arrest of demonstrators during the 2004 Republican National Convention was illegal, citing the NYPD's lack of individualized probable cause.
Judge Richard Sullivan rejected the city's claim that the NYPD relied on "group probable cause" in making 200-plus arrests on Aug 31, 2004, in which protesters marching from the World Trade Center to Madison Square Garden were stopped on Fulton Street and arrested on charges related to blocking the sidewalk. "No matter the circumstances, an arresting officer must believe that every individual arrested personally violated the law," Sullivan wrote in an opinion. "The Fourth Amendment does not recognize guilt by association."
However, while Sullivan ruled that the mass arrest was illegal, he did not take issue with the NYPD's handling of the arrestees, which included fingerprinting, detaining them for over 24 hours in many cases instead of simply issuing summonses and desk appearance tickets. "The No-Summons Policy was the City's answer to a threat derived from intelligence sources—namely, that demonstrators aimed to 'shut down the City of New York and the RNC' through 'continuous unlawful behavior,'" Sullivan wrote in his opinion. "It is simply unrealistic to expect the City to have implemented a more narrowly tailored, individualized alternative to the No-Summons Policy." The NYPD's implementation of the No-Summons Policy was one of the complaints plaintiffs had lodged against the city in their suits.
The ruling makes way for the city to pay damages to over fifty plaintiffs who sued the city for unlawful arrest. The city has been shelling out quite a bit of cash settling RNC-related lawsuits over the past few years, and currently has more suits pending. During the RNC, the NYPD significantly stepped up its presence in the city, employing nearly 12,000 officers to work the convention, which was more of a police presence than any city had during prior conventions. See below for Sullivan's full opinion:
Tagged
judge richard sullivan
lower manhattan
nypd
republican national convention
rnc 2004
original
Rebecca Fishbein
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .