It’s Friday end of another long late winter week. How about some zombie news?

During a 2006 summer festival at a Minneapolis shopping mall seven zombies created an event to illustrate mindless consumerism. The group "calling themselves zombies and almost touching people.” were the subject of 911 calls complaining about them walking "in a stiff, lurching fashion" throughout the mall. For musical accompaniment the zombies carried packs of audio equipment with wires sticking out which police claimed looked like a bomb or simulated WMD.  

Court News Reports All but one member of the group were held at the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center for two nights; the minor in the group was taken to a juvenile detention center.    Jail officials confiscated Sternberg's prosthetic leg, explaining that he might use it as a weapon. The group members were initially booked on charges of displaying simulated weapons of mass destruction, a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But a sergeant reviewing the case determined that none of the sound equipment seized fit the definition of a simulated WMD.    Authorities returned the property, including [Zombie] Sternberg’s prosthetic leg, and released the group without filing a formal criminal complaint.

 

Now, years later a Minneapolis circuit court ruled that police should not have arrested the zombies. However the court dismissed a lawsuit for damages.

The zombies claimed their arrests and overnight detention were unconstitutional. Discrimination was alleged in the complaint over the confiscation of one zombie’s prosthetic leg.

The St. Louis-based appeals court reversed on the Fourth Amendment claims, saying the plaintiffs "were engaged in protected expressive conduct."   "[A]n objectively reasonable person would not think probable cause exists under the Minnesota disorderly conduct statue to arrest a group of peaceful people for engaging in an artistic protest by playing music, broadcasting statements, dressing as zombies, and walking erratically in downtown Minneapolis during a week-long festival," the three-judge panel wrote.      Nor was there probable cause to arrest the plaintiffs for displaying simulated WMDs, the court added.