Activist DeRay Mckesson sues Baton Rouge over his arrest
Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesson sued the city of Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday over his arrest at a protest last month.
Mckesson was arrested July 9 alongside roughly 200 other protesters on charges that they were blocking highway traffic at a July 9 demonstration days after the police shooting of Alton Sterling. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against Mckesson and some 100 other people.
Mckesson and two other people arrested at the protest accused the city and police officials of excessive force and civil rights violations in a class action lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday. Officers pointed their assault weapons at peaceful protesters while clad in military gear and gas masks, according to the suit.
“Defendants used excessive force in attacking, battering, beating and assaulting plaintiffs and class members without provocation or the need for defense,” the lawsuit said. It described the police as advancing on the protesters in a “militarized and aggressive manner.”
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The suit names the city, East Baton Rouge Parish, the head of the Louisiana State Police, and the local police chief and sheriff as defendants. The American Civil Liberties Union joined other groups in filing a separate lawsuit last month over police treatment of protesters at the demonstration.
Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was fatally shot July 5 during a struggle with two white police officers. Witnesses filmed videos of the shooting that circulated far and wide, especially after the police shooting the following day of another black man in Minnesota, Philando Castile.
An ambush that killed five Dallas police officers that same week placed police departments around the country on alert. Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said he knew of credible threats against police as protesters were demonstrating in the state’s capital city.
A lone gunman fatally shot two police officers and a sheriff’s deputy in Baton Rouge July 17. Authorities had arrested four people days earlier believed to be plotting to kill cops with guns stolen from a pawn shop.
Woman in stunning Baton Rouge protest photo is nurse and mom
Mckesson, a 31-year-old school administrator, has emerged as one of the leading activists in the Black Lives Matter movement. He ran for mayor of his lifetime home city of Baltimore earlier this year, earning a sixth-place finish in the Democratic primary.
Mckesson spoke to the media after his release July 10. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against Mckesson.
(Max Becherer/AP)
He was walking along the side of Baton Rouge’s Airline Highway, close to where Sterling was shot, while live-streaming the protest when he was arrested July 9.
“I’m under arrest ya’ll,” he said as officers handcuffed him, handing his phone to someone beside him to continue the broadcast.
The arrest of nurse and mother Ieshia Evans earlier in the day also drew notice. She was photographed standing calmly as two heavily armored officers converged on her. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against her as well.
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With News Wire Services.
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Activist DeRay Mckesson sues Baton Rouge over his arrest
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