George Floyd protests: Lawsuits extend fight against police brutality from streets to courtrooms

Since the eruption of public protests after the death of George Floyd, thousands of complaints have been logged against law enforcement authorities thrust into the midst of unrest across the country.

Perhaps none of the claims stands out more, if only for its novelty, than a federal lawsuit brought last week by four Seattle protesters.

Citing the local police department’s “unbridled” use of chemical agents and projectile weapons, the protesters contended that they had been denied the right to assemble because they could not afford afford helmets, body armor and other protective equipment to ensure their safety. The police have wielded the advantage, they claimed, like a “de-facto protest tax.”

“Only those who have the means to purchase extensive protective gear can engage in First Amendment speech in the streets of Seattle, where (the) police force is not a source of protection but of antagonism for protesters,” the complaint states.

Legal questions raised: What you need to know on the federal response in Portland

A mural honors George Floyd during a protest occupation of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Washington, after Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
A mural honors George Floyd during a protest occupation of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Washington, after Floyd's death in Minneapolis.

Nearly three months after Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, nightly street clashes are producing new battles in America’s courtrooms and local government boardrooms. A wave of legal action is just beginning its push as misconduct claims against police officers stream into municipal disciplinary offices, challenging the tactics of authorities in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis and other scenes of major demonstrations.

The constellation of grievances ranges from injuries caused by exposure to tear gas and flying debris in Minneapolis to the death of a woman in Seattle who was struck by a car during a July 4 demonstration. In Portland, where new rioting broke out Sunday night, a class-action lawsuit was brought on behalf of journalists and legal observers, claiming they had been unjustly targeted with chemical agents during volatile street clashes.

Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing Floyd’s family in a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis, said the protests raging on in his client’s name have exposed “another kind of brutality” the courts must confront.

“We have to find a way to transform the pain we see on the faces of those out in the streets to new policy,” Crump said in an interview with USA TODAY. “This is a moment not just for the legal system but for the nation to finally accomplish equal justice for all its citizens.”

The path forward, legal analysts said, likely will not be easy.

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Despite recent efforts to strip away special protections for law enforcement, police and other public officials accused of misconduct are often shielded from lawsuits by longstanding legal doctrine known as "qualified immunity."

The provision sets a high bar for pursuing lawsuits involving official misconduct, requiring that officers' behavior must violate "clearly established" laws or constitutional rights. In June, the Supreme Court decided not to take up the question in its next term.

The pace of the litigation also can be prohibitively slow, especially with a deadly pandemic limiting court operations across the country.

“Usually, the unfortunate thing in these circumstances is that the damage (claimed in the legal actions) would likely have been done by the time the lawsuit gets decided or settled,” said Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

'Peaceful protesters were teargassed'

The fires that engulfed Minneapolis in the chaotic days after Floyd's death have long been extinguished, but the fight waged by protesters against alleged police abuses is not over.

Late last month, four protesters joined a growing number of litigants accusing the Minneapolis Police Department, the state Department of Public Safety and Minnesota State Patrol of excessive force to suppress their free speech rights.

Lawsuit: Police in Minneapolis violated reporters' constitutional rights during protests

"Peaceful protesters were teargassed, pepper-sprayed and shot with foam bullets and flash-bangs to intimidate them and quash the protests," the four said in a federal lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Minnesota.

According to the filing, the protesters suffered injuries that "remain two months later, including severe bruising and vocal issues from the tear gas."

"They’re now afraid to protest, and are either limiting their activities or bringing protective gear," their attorneys said.

"Protesting against police brutality should not mean more police brutality," said Teresa Nelson, the local ACLU's legal director, noting that the police response to the Floyd demonstrations was noticeably "different" – more aggressive – from past demonstrations.

Protesters set Minneapolis police's 3rd Precinct ablaze May 28. Protests continued around the city after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.
Protesters set Minneapolis police's 3rd Precinct ablaze May 28. Protests continued around the city after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.

Yet few such public actions have been as intense as those that consumed the city after Floyd's death May 25, including the burning of a local police precinct office that forced city officials to order an evacuation – a scene that put peaceful protesters at odds with others bent on destruction.

Federal authorities, while announcing criminal charges against the first of three suspects in the May 28 blaze, described a frenzied series of events in which the precinct office was "overrun and heavily damaged" by some in the crowd who set "multiple separate fires" in the building.

In all, more than a dozen people have been charged by federal prosecutors with arson or rioting offenses related to a swath of destruction across the city.

Nelson maintains that only "small numbers" of protesters were involved in the destruction. But she said the police response should have "distinguished between people who were exercising their First Amendment rights and those who were damaging property."

"They have a hard job, but that's their responsibility," Nelson said.

'Not the Gestapo'

Nightly clashes between protesters and law enforcement in Portland, which continued during the weekend, have resulted in multiple lawsuits, many of them accusing local and federal officers of using excessive force.

The flurry of legal action also featured a battle between the state and federal governments highlighting aggressive tactics used by federal officers while deployed to local streets. The politically charged dispute ultimately prompted the Trump administration to pull many of its officers from the city last week.

Tear gassed: Portland mayor tear-gassed by federal officers alongside protesters

Michael Fuller, a Portland attorney, said he represents about a dozen protesters who were hospitalized after they were exposed to tear gas, explosive devices and munitions by Portland police and federal officers.

Eight lawsuits have been filed against the Portland Police Bureau, and one has been brought against the Trump administration.

"Attorneys are the last line of defense when dictators begin acting unconstitutionally, and I personally will not stand by and let (the Trump administration) violate the U.S. Constitution for political purposes," Fuller said, accusing Trump of deploying federal law enforcement as a political prop during a reelection campaign.

"I support law and order, but I don't support throwing American citizens into unmarked vans, using federal forces without a warrant or probable cause," Fuller added, citing allegations that federal officers picked protesters off the streets without explanation and placed them in unmarked vehicles.

Acting DHS Secretary: Federal officers in Portland 'are not the Gestapo, storm troopers or thugs'

In one such incident, which prompted the Oregon attorney general to challenge the federal government, a protester claimed he was driven in an unmarked van and questioned at a holding facility. State officials sought a restraining order blocking federal officers from arresting people without a warrant. But a federal judge denied the request, ruling that the allegations rely on "too little evidence" to justify a restraining order and that state officials failed to show that alleged illegal seizures were widespread.

Last month, another federal judge blocked federal officers from arresting and using physical force against journalists and legal observers who showed up at the protests, ruling that there are “serious questions” related to their tactics.

Chad Wolf of the Department of Homeland Security says that if federal authorities left Portland, Ore., protesters would burn the courthouse down.
Chad Wolf of the Department of Homeland Security says that if federal authorities left Portland, Ore., protesters would burn the courthouse down.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf defended the federal response in Portland last week, blaming local and state officials for failing to protect federal property.

In testimony Thursday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Wolf said agents "were abandoned" as they were attacked nightly by violent instigators.

"Our law enforcement officers are not the Gestapo, storm troopers or thugs," Wolf told lawmakers.

But social justice groups Wall of Moms and Don't Shoot Portland have alleged in a separate lawsuit that the federal government targeted protesters because of their affiliation with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Protestors listen to a speaker on the steps during a protest rally against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic at the Michigan state capital in Lansing, Mich. on Thursday, May 14, 2020.
Protestors listen to a speaker on the steps during a protest rally against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic at the Michigan state capital in Lansing, Mich. on Thursday, May 14, 2020.

“It had to do with the content of our clients’ message,” said attorney Jessica Marsden, adding that protesters who showed up at the Michigan statehouse in May and challenged the governor's COVID-19 stay-at-home order were not confronted with the same aggressive response from the Trump administration.

“All of our clients were either directly physically injured, experienced tear gas or otherwise attacked by federal police in Portland over the past month,” said Marsden, an attorney at Protect Democracy, a nonprofit that represents the protesters.

'All hands on deck': 18,000 complaints, 34 investigations

On average, the Office of Police Accountability in Seattle fields up to 1,500 complaints about police misconduct each year.

In just more than two months since the death of Floyd, which spawned demonstrations in Seattle and across the country, more than 18,000 reports have flooded the office.

"It's been all hands on deck," said Andrew Myerberg, director of the office that investigates police misconduct claims.

Driven largely by social media, the public scrutiny of police during local demonstrations has produced waves of reports, Myerberg said, including thousands of complaints addressing the same incident. The image of a child's pained reaction to a burst of pepper spray, for example, generated about 14,000 complaints to the office.

Protesters gather a block away as Seattle Department of Transportation workers remove barricades at the intersection of 10th Avenue and Pine Street June 30 in Seattle.
Protesters gather a block away as Seattle Department of Transportation workers remove barricades at the intersection of 10th Avenue and Pine Street June 30 in Seattle.

The volume has been so great, a team from Microsoft is assisting local officials in responding.

So far, the reports, received via email, telephone and from other sources, have launched 34 investigations. Before all the reports are vetted, Myerberg expects the number of formal inquiries to climb to about 50.

The total number of officers involved in those investigations was not immediately available. Most of the complaints involve the use of chemical agents and nonlethal weapons for crowd control.

Also among the reports, Myerberg said, are complaints about the police department's use of social media that raise questions about the credibility of the information the city provided.

"We've never quite seen those complaints (questioning the city's social media messaging) before," Myerberg said, adding that investigators are rushing to complete inquiries on an expedited schedule of about 90 days.

"The biggest challenge is going through the email," he said.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Police protests move from streets to courtrooms as lawsuits mount