Iran Press/ America: The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Black Lives Matter on Thursday in federal court on Washington, accused President Trump and his administration of authorizing an “unprovoked and frankly criminal attack” on demonstrators to enable a photo op of the president holding a Bible in front of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church.
According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit cited Trump’s statements hours before the crackdown calling on the nation’s governors to “dominate your city and your state” and warning, “In Washington, we’re going to do something people haven’t seen before.”
The groups asserted that U.S. and military police officers’ use of horses, batons, shields and riot control agents — including pepper spray, smoke canisters, and rubber or plastic projectiles — violated largely peaceful protesters’ constitutional rights of free speech and assembly 30 minutes before a citywide curfew took effect Monday.
The suit — which also names Attorney General William P. Barr as a defendant — was brought by the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
All plaintiffs said they were gathered peacefully to protest the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other similar deaths.
ACLU officials called the lawsuit the first of many it intends to file in response to violence by police against protesters and journalists in demonstrations that have erupted in all 50 states, saying the attorney general has become complicit in attacks on First Amendment rights.
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