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A Black Lives Matter Los Angeles organizer and two other people are suing the city, alleging their civil rights were violated by LAPD officers outside Mayor Eric Garcetti‘s home in 2020.
The plaintiffs in the proposed class-action lawsuit brought Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court are 72-year-old Greg Akili, the BLMLA organizer, as well as Shannon Thomas and Emily Allers. The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages.
The suit seeks a court order preventing LAPD officers from “unlawfully and unconstitutionally policing protected expressive activity, assemblies and demonstrations.”
Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the City Attorney’s Office, said Tuesday that “Our office will review the complaint and have no further comment at this time.”
The demonstrators gathered outside the mayor’s home at about 9:15 a.m. on Dec. 6, 2020, to protest the possible nomination of Garcetti to a cabinet post in the Biden administration. They encountered a line of LAPD officers on the sidewalk in front of the residence, the suit states.
About a half-hour later, an LAPD lieutenant called for the entire line of about 14 officers to attack the protesters, causing many to fall and topple over each other, including Allers, the suit alleges. Akili was allegedly shoved to the ground by the officers, causing an injury to his right hand which took months to completely heal.
“After charging at and pushing protesters, officers began wildly and forcefully swinging their batons at protesters…,” the suit alleges.
As Allers tried to get up after being pushed to the ground, an officer struck her in the back of her head near her ear with a baton, knocking her unconscious, the suit states.
The proposed class consists of about 50 people who were present and allegedly attacked by LAPD officers while not resisting arrest or engaging in violence, the suit states.
Garcetti was not nominated for a cabinet position by Biden, who instead has offered his name for the post of U.S. ambassador to India.
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