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A woman participating in a Black Lives Matter protest is asking a California court to compel the city of La Mesa and the La Mesa Police Department to release the name of the police officers who allegedly shot her with bean bag rounds.
Leslie Furcron says she joined a peaceful protest on May 31, 2020, in La Mesa. She claims La Mesa police officers released tear gas and fired rubber bullets, lead bean bag shots and various other projectiles at the crowd.
Furcron states that the police officers did not warn the peaceful protesters that their actions would be met with police force. She argues that La Mesa police officers shot projectiles within close range of protesters, showing an intent to severely injure them.
The lawsuit claims the plaintiff sustained extensive optical, brain and nerve damage from the lead projectile bean bag shot. She says she cannot see out of her left eye, suffers from multiple facial fractures and will face a lifetime of recovery from these injuries.
The petitioner says she filed a lawful request for the records as to which police officers were shooting the projectiles, but the city of La Mesa and the La Mesa Police Department denied the records request, stating that they are exempt from disclosure.
The records are being withheld because the information would endanger the officer’s safety and that in this incident, the public interest served by not disclosing the record outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record, Furcron claims.
According to California SB 1421, disclosure of police officer records is required when there are claims of use of force, sexual assault or dishonesty, Furcron says.
In addition, she claims her injuries qualify as being great bodily injury.
The city of La Mesa and the La Mesa Police Department maintain that releasing the police officer’s name would endanger the officer’s safety, but Furcron says they did not provide any evidence of threats from the public to corroborate the officer’s fears.
Furcron argues that it is of the best interest of the public to share information related to police brutality in order to hold police officers accountable for their actions.
Under the California Public Records Act (CPRA), members of the public have a statutory right to examine public documents upon submitting a valid request to a public governmental agency.
Furcron argues that the respondents have violated the CPRA by failing to provide a date and time in which the records will be produced, failing to make records promptly available, not stating the specific reasons or extraordinary circumstances entitling the withholding and withholding the documents claiming they are exempt from disclosure.
“Agencies are not required to withhold documents, absent another provision of law, in accordance with the CPRA’s express exemptions granting them permission to do so,” the plaintiff says.
In addition, “respondents have refused and continue to refuse to comply with providing members of the public with access to public records as outlined by the statutory requirements under the CPRA,” Furcron explains in her motion to compel.
The plaintiff contends the defendants have violated and will continue to violate the CPRA, while the defendants believe they are acting in compliance, Furcron goes on to state.
In a similar action, the advocacy group Black Lives Matter and numerous citizens have filed a class action lawsuit against the city of Seattle, claiming unnecessary police brutality during recent protests. The class action lawsuit claims that not only was the police department using excessive force, their actions will deter others from exercising their constitutional right to demonstrate.
The plaintiffs in that case explain that the Seattle Police Department tried to put a stop to the demonstrations using less than lethal force which included tear gas and rubber bullets.
In another action, a lawsuit has been filed against the Los Angeles Police Department by protesters who claim the department arrested more than 2,600 individuals over the course of a week of protests. The Black Lives Matter lawsuit claims that the police have violated their rights because of these arrests.
According to the lawsuit, protesters were detained and handcuffed on buses without access to bathrooms, food or water. One plaintiff maintains he was hit with rubber bullets while trying to assist a woman who had fallen down.
Protests have become a rallying cry after George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police while being detained for a nonviolent offense.
Were you a part of the Black Lives Matter protests? Leave a message in the comments section below.
Furcron is represented by Dante T. Pride of The Pride Law Firm.
The Black Lives Matter Public Records Lawsuit is Leslie Furcron v. City of La Mesa, et al., Case No. 37-2020-00021187, in the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego.
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