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A group of demonstrators arrested during protests against racial injustice and police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, recently filed a class action lawsuit saying they were discriminated against based on “the content of their message.”
The plaintiffs claim the city and county of Kenosha violated their First Amendment rights by selectively enforcing the law when officers from the Kenosha Police and Kenosha County Sheriff’s departments arrested them for breaking a curfew, but not others who were on the streets at the same time.
Their legal team filed the class action lawsuit at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Tuesday.
“In Kenosha, there are two sets of laws – one that applies to those who protest police brutality and racism, and another for those who support the police,” the class action says.
The plaintiffs are suing “to protect their right and the rights of others to protest police brutality free of retaliation and free from fear that they will be arrested solely on the basis of the content of their message.”
Adelana Akindes, Oscar Walton, Danica Gagliano-Deltgen and Victor Garcia say they are among more than 150 people arrested for violating a county-imposed curfew while protesting police brutality and racism, while countless police supporters, many armed, were allowed to move through the city at the same time, undisturbed.
That includes 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who ended up killing two protesters and injuring another after curfew Aug. 25.
Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, is claiming the shootings were in self-defense. He has “identified himself as a member of a local militia who was in Kenosha to protect lives and property,” the Statesville Record and Landmark reported.
“In spite of the presence of pro-police protesters and militias (after curfew) not a single pro-police demonstrator has been arrested” for violating the order, the class action lawsuit says.
Quite the opposite happened, the plaintiffs say.
Several video clips broadcast widely on television and the internet captured law enforcement officers thanking the armed pro-police demonstrators and offering them refreshment. Some of those videos are included with and referenced in the class action lawsuit.
One of the videos features Rittenhouse.
In it, the lawsuit says the police are heard saying “hey, thank you guys again” and “we appreciate you guys, we really do” and offering and then giving “Mr. Rittenhouse and his posse” bottles of water.
At other times in the same video, the officers can be heard and seen enforcing the curfew against the anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters.
After that video was released publicly, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth insisted his deputies “would toss a water to anybody who asked,” the Statesville Record and Landmark reported, including BLM protesters.
“The video makes clear that there are two sets of laws,” the class action lawsuit says.
The demonstrations began following the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake by a Kenosha police officer.
The incident was caught on video and shows Blake walked away from officers pointing their guns at him and walked toward a nearby vehicle. When Blake opened the driver’s side door, one of the officers grabbed the back of his shirt and fired seven rounds into his back.
He survived the shooting and is reportedly paralyzed.
Kenosha is one of several American cities – including Minneapolis, Detroit and Portland, Oregon – where protesters have held near-daily demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police in May.
Many of the protests have been peaceful, but some have marred by violence, yet more claims of police brutality, rioting and looting.
Have you been discriminated against during a peaceful protest or demonstration? Have you been the victim of police brutality or racial injustice? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Akindes, the other plaintiffs and the proposed Class Members are represented by Kimberley Cy. Motley of Charlotte, North Carolina, and E. Milo Schwab of Denver.
The Kenosha BLM Protesters of Police Brutality Class Action Lawsuit is Adelana Akindes, et al. v. City of Kenosha, et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-01353, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
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One thought on Four Arrested During Kenosha Police Brutality Protest File Class Action Lawsuit
Protestors out after curfew suing Police!!!!
Are Lawyers so greedy so ignorant so left wing that they are willing to make asses out of themselves, knowing the Police have the legal right to arrest SCUM that break the law.
Top Action should eliminate posting bogus law suits that show the sewer SCUMERS causing ridiculous wanna b’s controversy suites that will be thrown out? With any luck, those IDOIT Lawyers will be sued by the Government for criminal actions against our right to be safe. Maybe the loser Lawyers need to advertise for American rights that are being threatened. These losers must be at the bottom of the barrel wanna be lawyers. So said as my rights to free speech are the law…