Zombies scare Minneapolis into cash settlement
Seven zombies accused of carrying weapons of mass destruction will be staggering to the bank shortly with a bundle of cash, courtesy of a legal settlement with the City of Minneapolis.
Some of the zombies who made a deal with the City of Minneapolis
The seven were arrested in 2006 during Aquatennial while dressed for a "Night of the Living Dead." They were stiff-legging it down Nicollet Mall to protest mindless consumerism when some unhappy soul called 911.
The cops busted the seven for disorderly conduct and said the zombies' homemade public address rig looked like a weapon of mass destruction. The zombies spent some brief, scary time in jail, where the cops confiscated one protester's very real prosthetic leg.
No fair, the unhappy zombies' lawyer argued in a federal lawsuit. Dressing up like extras in a George Romero movie and making shoppers uneasy was a constitutional right.
A District Court judge judge didn't buy the argument and threw out the lawsuit in 2008. But it came back from the dead in February, thanks to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Now, the City Council has approved a $165,000 payment to the zombies and their lawyer, Jordan Kushner, figuring it was a better option than taking their chances in court.
Not a bad payday for an evening's protest against consumer culture.
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