St. Louis sued for misconduct toward
protesters of white officer's acquittal
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[September 23, 2017]
By Suzannah Gonzales
(Reuters) - A civil liberties group sued
the city of St. Louis on Friday, alleging police misconduct against
demonstrators protesting the acquittal of a white former officer in the
killing of a black man.
The civil rights lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court in St. Louis
by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. It names Maleeha
Ahmad, Alison Dreith and "a class of similarly situated individuals" as
plaintiffs.
"Everyone deserves the same rights as I do. I just want peace and
justice," Ahmad said in an ACLU of Missouri statement.
The statement said Ahmad was pepper sprayed by police without warning.
"Unfortunately, we are seeing a lack of respect on First Amendment
rights," said ACLU of Missouri executive director Jeffrey Mittman in a
phone interview, referring to the constitutional guarantee that protects
freedom of speech.
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The lawsuit asked the court for an order requiring St. Louis not to
arbitrarily declare assemblies unlawful and order protesters to
disperse.
"The mayor has not personally seen the lawsuit yet, and we are not
commenting on pending litigation," Koran Addo, Mayor Lyda Krewson's
spokesman, said in an email.
The protests were in response to a judge's decision on Sept. 15 that
found former officer Jason Stockley, 36, not guilty of first-degree
murder in the killing of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24.
"A common theme of the protests has been that, in the view of the
protesters, the verdict reflected institutional racism and unwarranted
bias in favor of law enforcement officers," the lawsuit said.
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![](../images/092317pics/news_I13.jpg)
Protesters fall as they are pushed back by police in riot gear
during a protest after a not guilty verdict in the murder trial of
former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley, charged with the
2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, who was black, in St. Louis,
Missouri, U.S., September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant/File
Photo
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_080217.png)
The protesters committed no crime and posed no threat to the safety
of police or others, the lawsuit said.
The city retaliated against people engaging in activities protected
by the First Amendment, interfered with the right to record police
officers in public places, unreasonably seized them and used
excessive force, the lawsuit said.
"The City of St. Louis has a custom or policy of retaliating against
protesters expressing disapproval of the actions of law enforcement
officers, and has done so on occasions before these particular
protests, including in 2014," the ACLU of Missouri lawyers said in
the lawsuit.
The 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager,
by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson, touched off riots and
fueled the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and
Rosalba O'Brien)
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