Protesters File Class Action Lawsuit Over Police Violence at Trump Rally

Protesters at an anti-Trump rally have filed a class action lawsuit challenging the Phoenix Police Department’s use of violence against them, claiming the force used was unnecessary and unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs in the Trump rally police violence class action lawsuit are two nonprofit organizations that planned the protest, Puente and Poder in Action, as well as several protesters who claim they were affected by the police violence at the protest — Ira Yedlin, Janet Travis, Cynthia Guillen, and Jacinta Gonzalez Goodman.

They aim to hold Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams, seven other police officers who were involved in the conflict, and the City of Phoenix accountable for the alleged unnecessary and unconstitutional use of force.

The protesters and the organizations say that the anti-Trump protest at which the violence occurred was at the Phoenix Convention Center in August 2017, when Trump was giving a speech at the convention center. The plaintiffs claim that the protest was peaceful, and was designed to protest the Trump Administration’s policies.

According to the Trump rally protest class action lawsuit, during the protest the Phoenix Police Department “indiscriminately” fired pepper spray, gas, pepper bullets, and flash-bang canisters into the crowd of protesters.

Allegedly, this attack was ordered by Lieutenant Benjamin Moore and Sergeant Douglas McBride, and was carried out despite the fact that the thousands of protesters were gathered in a lawful manner.

The protesters and nonprofits say that “assuming some isolated incidents of throwing plastic water bottles by a few, these did not justify firing and harming the many. No Trump protester threw any dangerous objects, nor initiated use of the weapons used by the PPD; they did kick the gas canisters thrown by police away from anti-Trump protesters, or were near the shaking fence.”

The Trump protesters class action lawsuit alleges that the police’s use of force was unwarranted and excessive. To support this claim, the protesters and organizations note that the crowd included children, elderly people, disabled people, and pregnant women, some of whom were injured by the police’s use of force.

To further support their argument that the police’s use of force was not warranted, was not an appropriate response to protester behavior, and not a reaction out of necessity, the anti-Trump police violence class action lawsuit notes that the police shouted obscenities at the protesters, including “stun-bag that guy, oh yeah, yep that’ll teach him” and “That’s right, motherfuckers, you just smoked yourself, dumbasses.”

Beyond the alleged unconstitutional and unnecessary force, the protesters claim that the police officers further acted unconstitutionally by failing to warn the crowd that they were about to attack, and by failing to provide a safe dispersal route for the crowd.

The Trump protest class action lawsuit alleges that these violations contributed to widespread panic and fear amongst the crowd, and contributed to further physical and emotional injuries that could have been avoided.

Puente, Poder in Action, and the protesters are represented by Kathleen E. Brody and Darrell L. Hill of ACLU Foundation of Arizona; by Dan Stormer, Joshua Piovia-Scott, and Cindy Pánuco of Hadsell Stormer & Renick LLP; and by Daniel J. Pochoda.

The Anti-Trump Protest Police Violence Class Action Lawsuit is Puente, et al. v. City of Phoenix, et al., Case No. 2:18-cv-02778-JJT, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

UPDATE: On Sept. 30, 2019, Arizona protesters at an anti-Trump rally who filed a class action lawsuit over the violence they allegedly suffered at the hands of the Phoenix Police Department have received Class certification.