SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento anti-police brutality and racial justice protestors have filed suit against the Sacramento Police Department and city over claims its officers repeatedly employed practices that unfairly violated the civil rights of protestors during demonstrations between 2020 and 2021.
In 2020, large-scale demonstrations erupted all over the United States in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both unarmed African Americans killed by police. Protests in Sacramento remained largely peaceful.
Attorneys with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area joined the plaintiffs in Sacramento Tuesday to announce the suit, which alleges and seeks to halt the department from actively engaging in discriminatory and violent tactics against anti-police brutality protestors. The suit also alleges police allowed “white supremacist demonstrators” to harm counter-protestors during events over the past two years.
The allegations go on to claim the department illegally violated protestors rights to equal protection, free speech, privacy while using excessive force. The claims span two years, but Sacramento activists say the police department has been using these alleged discriminatory practices for years.
Tim Swanson, spokesperson for the city of Sacramento, says officials have yet to be served with the suit and that it would be premature to comment.
During the time periods addressed in the lawsuit, plaintiffs referenced numerous reports of injured protestors and officers. Among these reports include stories of: a woman claiming she nearly went blind after being hit by a rubber bullet, 11 people arrested after supporters of former President Donald Trump clashed with anti-protestors, and seven Sacramento police officers reportedly injuried during protests.
California recently passed a new law regarding police of force in response to protests. AB 48 bars the use of projectiles, like rubber bullets or chemical agents like tear gas, unless protestors are in violation of an imposed curfew, pose a verbal threat, or are noncompliant with a law enforcement directive.
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