At left is attorney Justin Bamberg and at right is attorney L. Chris Stewart.
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“Plaintiffs have engaged in this peaceful speech, association, and protest on the streets, sidewalks, and medians of Baton Rouge”, the lawsuit read.
“[The police response] made me afraid to protest”, Crystal Williams, an organizer with North Baton Rouge Matters, said in a statement released by the ACLU.
It also asks a judge to mandate that any law enforcement officer responding to protests must wear visible personal identification and not use mace or pepper spray on demonstrators. Police also claimed that large chunks of concrete had been hurled at them at a protest earlier in the day, but that no officers were injured.
The ACLU of Louisiana has condemned the “violent, militarized tactics on groups of people who have gathered peacefully”, the Daily Mail reports. They were especially intense in Baton Rouge and in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where last week a black cafeteria manager, Philando Castile, was fatally shot by a police officer at a traffic stop, an incident caught on video.
Since the shooting of Sterling by Baton Rouge police, the department has come under heavy criticism for the way it has handled the subsequent protests. The family’s attorney later said all Cameron wants is “change, progress and justice”, adding “we want justice; we want an indictment”.
State Rep. Ted James, a black lawyer who grew up near where Sterling was shot, and Cleve Dunn Jr., a prominent black businessman, met with local Republican leaders at a public luncheon to discuss the shooting.
“I truly feel that my father was a good man, and he will always be a good man”, the teenager said.
Cameron Sterling told reporters today that he and his father had a “best friend bond”. It is that kind of violence, EBR Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said, police simply will not tolerate.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sued the Baton Rouge police on Wednesday, accusing law enforcement officials of violating the constitutional rights of people protesting the death of Alton Sterling. He called for people from all races to unite as one as they remember Sterling.
A burglary at a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pawnshop this past weekend has led to the arrests of three suspects in what police are calling a plot to harm officers.
Edmonson said that there was “substantial, credible evidence” that some sort of attack on police was going to occur.
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A week later, it was a composed teen who spoke to the media. People gather for Prayer Vigil organized by Myron Smothers at Memorial Tower on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge, La., Monday, July 11, 2016.
