ACLU suing the Baton Rouge Police Department over protester arrests
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.
Crystal Williams, an organizer of North Baton Rouge Matters, said the response by police made her scared to protest, and she felt her safety was in jeopardy. "A peaceful demonstration should never be like that," she told WAFB. "I feel like speech is my most powerful tool to ensure my community and my family are safe. But now I feel totally silenced."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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