Muflahi filed suit in state court Monday.
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“In some of the most oppressive countries in the world, when they have civil unrest, the worst they’ll bring out is maybe riot gear”, said Kraska, referring to batons, shields and masks.
An affidavit filed with the warrant, obtained by The Associated Press, provides the most detailed account yet by police of what happened in the deadly altercation with Alton Sterling. Sterling’s killing was filmed by bystanders and those videos have been widely circulated, fueling national protests, including those affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Porter said his client told officers to get out of his store following the shooting of Sterling. In the footage, Sterling was struggling with officers while being pinned down before he was shot several times. Police in squad cars tried to stop them, but several hundred had already made their way up the ramp, and the crowd swelled to more than 1,000.
Friends and family of Alton Sterling, 37, will gather at the F.G. Clark Activity Center of Southern University for an 8 a.m.-10:30 a.m. viewing, followed by an 11 a.m. funeral.
Despite the clashes on Sunday, local officials maintain that Baton Rouge has avoided a Ferguson-like scenario.
Soon after the Alton Sterling shooting death, law enforcement allegedly seized Muflahi’s security footage that he says recorded the encounter between the victim and police. Parts of the shooting were captured on cellphone videos.
But tensions ratcheted up and police arrested 200 demonstrators over a three-day period and took to the streets in riot gear, carrying rifles and driving armoured vehicles.
The mere appearance of military-style machinery in Ferguson served to escalate, rather than calm, clashes in that community, the Justice Department report found. “Not to agitate us and pick and grab people”, she said.
Monday’s demonstration was organized over social media by teenage girls who said they were determined to keep it peaceful.
The Department of Justice has opened a federal civil rights investigation into Sterling’s death. But any decision on whether to pursue other charges such as murder or negligent homicide or assault would generally come from the state.
After almost a week of protests, Baton Rouge police are taking criticism for their methods of dealing with demonstrators.
Since Police Chief David Brown took over in 2010, complaints of excessive force by officers have dropped by nearly two-thirds.
There is a new photo on the making rounds from the BlackLivesMatters protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA and it is everything Black lives stands for.
“I think the law enforcement folks have a strategy of identifying these folks and while they might not move in to actively arrest the agitators at the moment that they’re causing problems, it might be a delayed arrest”, Carbo said. Twenty-two of them are New Orleans residents, while seven are from Baton Rouge.
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A Baton Rouge police spokesman, Sgt. Don Coppola, has said that protests have become more violent as protesters from other cities arrived in Baton Rouge. After yelling “gun!” to his fellow officer, one cop fired five shots at Sterling, who was hit both in the chest and back.
