The Los Angeles native hopped on Instagram Wednesday (July 13) and applauded Cameron Sterling’s televised pro-peace press conference.
Advertisement
A group of local organizations are suing the Baton Rouge police over their treatment of demonstrators protesting the shooting death of a 37-year-old black man.
“This exercise of constitutional rights has been met with a military-grade assault on protestors’ bodies and rights”, reads the lawsuit filed by the ACLU.
In the lawsuit, it alleges that officers used excessive force, wrongful arrests, and both physical and verbal abuse to break up the protests. “We can’t bring Alton Sterling back but at minimum, the police can stop blocking our right to protest in his name”.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) called the response “moderate”, while Louisiana State Police Col. Michael D. Edmonson said protesters in at least one instance had thrown bricks at police. So far, 48 people arrested during demonstrations over the weekend are facing criminal charges, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. “Yet Alton Sterling is on the long list of Black people killed needlessly by our nation’s police, and protests in his honor have turned into circuses of violence where the First Amendment is tossed aside”, said ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie Esman. People pray during Prayer Vigil organized by Myron Smothers at Memorial Tower on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge, La., Monday, July 11, 2016.
Since Sterling was shot and killed by police officers last week, heated protests have erupted in Louisiana’s capital city as militarized police officers wearing riot gear have faced off against demonstrators in scenes broadcast widely online and on television.
Sterling was shot to death July 5 as two white officers pinned him to the pavement outside a convenience store.
Law enforcement officials have also said they only put on riot gear after uncovering a plot in which four people broke into a pawn shop seeking guns they planned to use to attack officers. They also say they have recovered some weapons from protesters, and the governor said one police officer had his teeth knocked out because of a rock.
Cameron Sterling, son of Alton Sterling, who was killed by Baton Rouge police last Tuesday, holds the hand of his mother, Quinyetta McMillon, as he speaks to the media outside the Triple S Food Mart, where his father was kill… Bamberg said the family wants an indictment in the case and hopes state Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office “one day” will get involved.
Advertisement
As expected the protesters were treated as enemies of the state as hundreds of them were arrested despite no reports of anti-law enforcement violence from the demonstrators anywhere in the country. I feel that yes you can protest but I want everyone to protest the right way.
