Appeals court backs dismissal of B.R. cop’s Black Lives Matter lawsuit

A federal appeals court says a Louisiana court rightly dismissed a deputy’s lawsuit accusing Black Lives Matter and several leaders of inciting violence that led to a deadly 2016 attack on law enforcement officers.

The Advocate reported that a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans unanimously supported the lower court’s ruling on August 15. A judge found last year that the lawsuit failed to state a plausible claim for relief.

The suit doesn’t name the officer but its description of the plaintiff matches East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Tullier, who was critically wounded by 29-year-old Gavin Long. Long killed three law enforcement officers and was later gunned down by authorities.

The attack occurred less than two weeks after a white Baton Rouge officer killed 37-year-old Black man Alton Sterling during a struggle.

BRPD Officer Blane Salamoni, who shot Sterling six times at point-blank range and hurled profanities at the man as he lay dying on the ground, was terminated by the Baton Rouge Police Department but was not charged by the U.S. Department of Justice or the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office.

Officer Salamoni reportedly cried after he was fired by the BRPD and called his termination the worst day of his life.

His partner, Officer Howie Lake, was allowed to return to his post as a BRPD officer after a brief suspension.

The officer-involved killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castille near Minneapolis sparked national pretests that ultimately led to the killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge, La. and five officers in Dallas, Texas.

This article originally published in the August 27, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.