The Oakland City Council has agreed to settle Kayvan Sabeghi's federal civil rights lawsuit for $645,000. Sabeghi's spleen was lacerated during an Occupy Oakland demonstration on November 2, 2011, when he was beaten by Oakland Police Officer Frank Uu Uu, now retired, who was part of a tight-knit group of SWAT/"Tango team" officers at the heart of OPD's violent misconduct toward Occupy Oakland demonstrators. Uu's immediate supervisor at the time of this incident was Sgt. Patrick Gonzales, who has been involved in multiple shooting deaths.

The Sabeghi settlement comes just months after more than $2 million in total settlements by the city in two other cases involving OPD's violent repression of Occupy Oakland and mass arrest of Justice for Oscar Grant demonstrators. As part of those settlements, the City of Oakland and OPD agreed to abide by and to allow the court to enforce a crowd control policy setting strict guidelines for the use of force at demonstrations and other crowd situations. However, OPD has refused to forgo use of so-called "less lethal" weapons such as explosive chemical agent grenades and lead shot filled impact munitions in crowd situations, despite serious injuries such as that of twenty-four-year-old Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, who was shot in the head at close range with a "bean bag" round on October 25, 2011. Olsen's civil suit against OPD is still unresolved.

Kayvan Sabeghi Video

Previous Related Indybay Features: NLG Obtains $1.17M and OPD Reforms for Injured Occupy Oakland Protesters and Journalists | NLG Wins $1 Million & Reforms for OPD's Illegal Mass Arrest of Oscar Grant Protesters on Nov 5, 2010