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The protests erupted in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson in
August after white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot
and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, an African-American who
was unarmed.
U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson delivered the ruling after
hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters
against local and state police officials in Missouri.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs said children and elderly people
were within the crowds when police launched tear gas without
warning, boxed in demonstrators making it hard for them to leave
the area, and failed to wear visible identification.
The judge did not grant all of the conditions sought by
protesters, including one seeking an order that tear gas be used
only as a "last resort to prevent significant threats to public
safety."
The complaint filed Monday names as defendants St. Louis Police
Chief Sam Dotson, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, and
Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson.
Police officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The six plaintiffs include a coffeehouse owner; two co-founders
of an area activist organization; a legal observer; a professor
from Saint Louis University; and a college student.
"This was a victory today," said lawyer Brendan Roediger, who is
helping represent the plaintiffs. "At its core it accomplishes
what we were asking for."
Brown's Aug. 9 death, and the lack of charges against Wilson,
have prompted expanding protests over what activists say is
deeply ingrained hostile treatment of African Americans by
police, and an unequal justice system that does not hold police
accountable.
Protests have spread to many major U.S. cities, and accelerated
after a grand jury in Staten Island decided not to indict a
white police officer there in the death of a 43-year-old black
man suspected of illegally selling cigarettes.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City, Mo.; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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