B.R. cop sues Black Lives Matter activist over protest injury
14th November 2016 · 0 Comments
A Baton Rouge police officer who says he was injured during a protest after a Black man was killed by two cops, filed a lawsuit on Nov. 7 against Black Lives Matter leader DeRay McKesson, who was among the activists arrested during the demonstration this summer.
The protest came after police killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling, a father of five, who was shot at point-blank range after being wrestled to the ground in the parking lot of a convenience store in South Baton Rouge where he sold CDs.
The federal lawsuit, which does not provide the plaintiff’s name, contends that the officer was hit in the face by a piece of concrete or a “rock-like substance” thrown by a protester at police during the July 9 demonstration in Baton Rouge.
While the lawsuit does not accuse McKesson of throwing the rock that struck the officer, the lawsuit does accuse McKesson and Black Lives Matter of “inciting the violence” that led to his injury.
Black Lives Matter is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The Associated Press reports that the lawsuit alleges that McKesson “was in charge of the protests and he was seen and heard giving orders throughout the day and night of the protests,” the suit says. “The protest turned into a riot.”
According to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, the unidentified officer lost teeth and had injuries to his jaw and brain.
McKesson told The AP last week that he hadn’t seen the suit and couldn’t comment on it.
The Alton Sterling shooting and another officer-involved shooting in Minnesota that claimed the life of Philando Castille the same week sparked a series of nationwide protests that ultimately led to the killing of five law enforcement officers in Dallas, Texas and three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, La.
After the deadly shootings during the Dallas demonstration, Baton Rouge police donned body armor and other riot gear and took an aggressive approach after reports of a plot to kill or harm law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge surfaced. News cameras captured images of police shoving unarmed protesters and chasing them onto private property in downtown Baton Rouge.
McKesson was among the protesters who filed lawsuits against Baton Rouge accusing police of wrongful arrests, using excessive force and violating the demonstrators’ constitutional rights.
The officer who filed the Nov. 7 lawsuit against McKesson and Black Lives Matter is identified in court papers only as “John Doe” with the lawsuit asserting that the plaintiff’s name is being concealed “for his protection.”
The lawsuit pointed to the July 7 police killings in Dallas and the July 17 killing of three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge as justification for excluding the officer’s name from court papers.
Louisiana is currently the only state that has passed a “Blue Lives Matter” law designating attacks on law enforcement officers as hate crimes.
Loyola University Law School professor Dane Ciolino told The Associated Press that it’s “really unusual” for the officer to sue under a pseudonym in a case of this kind. Ciolino also said it could be difficult for the officer’s attorneys to prove that McKesson or Black Lives Matter “aided and abetted” the alleged battery or somehow negligently allowed it to happen.
“Black Lives Matter is just a social movement. It’s not an entity. I don’t know how it could be liable,” Ciolino said.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Donna Grodner, declined to elaborate on the suit’s allegations. She did tell The AP that the officer is still being treated for his injuries.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who hails from a family of sheriffs and law enforcement officers, defended the Baton Rouge police’s use of force to control the crowd just two days after the five officers were killed in Dallas. According to The AP, he noted that a Baton Rouge police officer had several teeth knocked out by a rock thrown during the July 9 demonstration.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has defended the police response to the protests. The governor, a Democrat who comes from a family of sheriffs, also noted that a police officer had teeth knocked out by a rock during the protests.
A Baton Rouge police official declined to comment on the lawsuit or the identity of the officer who filed it last week.
Mckesson, a Baltimore, Md. resident, was arrested on July 9 and charged with obstructing a highway. An estimated 100 protesters were arrested during the demonstration which drew several hundred participants. East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore reportedly has indicated that he has no plans to prosecute Mckesson or any of the other protesters arrested this summer.
This article originally published in the November 14, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
