Prominent Black Lives Matter activist, DeRay Mckesson has filed suit against the city of Baton Rouge and police officials over his July 9th arrest. According to The Associated Press, the lawsuit claims that police acted in a “militarized and aggressive manner” while detaining him in a protest against the shooting death of Alton Sterling.
Mckesson, whose arrest was captured live on Periscope, was detained on a charge of obstructing a highway.
The moment @deray got arrested live on Periscope. Here are some of the Periscope comments along w/ video. #FreeDeray pic.twitter.com/arDrzxrW4a
— Jessie Karangu (@JMKTV) July 10, 2016
The charge was later dropped. He was one of nearly 200 protestors arrested. The federal class-action lawsuit which includes two other protestors, claims police were unnecessarily aggressive during the arrests using excessive force in violation of the protesters’ constitutional rights. According to the AP, the suit calls for “unspecified compensation for lost wages, court costs and other expenses related to the arrests”.
In an interview with MSNBC shortly after his release, Deray described the incident saying, “If you see the Periscope, I was streaming all of it even in the moment that I got pushed down to the ground from behind and it was clear that I was not in the street. I showed the line, itself and I think that it will be proven that police officers were provoking protestors the entire time and I was just one of the many people they were provoking.”
