The litigious dead

Long time readers may remember that, back in July, I wrote about a group of people in Minneapolis who got arrested while dressed as zombies. They were ultimately held in custody for two days before being released, without being formally charged. At the time I couldn't believe that cops, especially in a city like Minneapolis, would be so unaware of zombie walks, zombie dance parties and flash mobs that they would mistake a bunch of kids in zombie makeup for a WMD threat.

The arrested zombies have now filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County. That link has pictures of the zombie plaintiffs.

You can tell that the author of this story in the Pioneer Press had some fun with his task:

Seven people shuffled forward Wednesday to serve the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County with a lawsuit for violating their rights...

...supporters said the arrests' pretense was shakier than a zombie's gait.

...one of the officers heatedly swore he didn't care about the zombies' constitutional rights and that he was going to teach the undead a lesson. The suit also says the zombies were forced to lurch around in the back of a police van because of willfully sudden stops and starts by a police driver, and that one of the zombies' prosthetic leg was taken away while in jail...

At least they're not alleging the officer removed the zombie's leg and beat him with it.

I feel bad about stories like this--call it divided sympathies. Cops vs kids in zombie makeup...sheesh. I'm a cop, I'm a big fan of gore makeup, and my daughter frequently participates in zombie-related recreation. I'm betting that if any of the responding cops had possessed a better sense of humor, or if the zombies had been polite and cooperative, that none of this would've happened. Oh well.