The ACLU of Louisiana and other local groups have filed a lawsuit against the Baton Rouge Police Department, claiming police violated the First Amendment rights of protesters who gathered peacefully in the days after last week's deadly officer-involved shooting of Alton Sterling.
Over the weekend, police in Baton Rouge arrested about 200 demonstrators, and the suit alleges that officers used excessive force and physical and verbal abuse to break up the protests, WAFB reports, and also made wrongful arrests. "People were injured by police officers and some of them denied medical care as a result of these arrests and it all came from the police showing up at what was the conclusion of a very peaceful event in riot gear really looking like they were ready to pick a fight," Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said in a statement.
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