Police officials in Missouri are sued for $40 million by protesters in Ferguson

[dixiegrrrrl]

(Reuters) - A group of people caught up in unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after a white officer killed a black teenager, sued local officials on Thursday, alleging civil rights violations through arrests and police assaults with rubber bullets and tear gas.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, says law enforcement met a broad public outcry over the Aug. 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown with "militaristic displays of force and weaponry," (and) engaged U.S. citizens "as if they were war combatants."

The lawsuit seeks a total of $40 million on behalf of six plaintiffs, including a 17-year-old boy who was with his mother in a fast-food restaurant when they were arrested. Each of the plaintiffs was caught up in interactions with police over a period from Aug. 11 to 13, the suit allege.

Named as defendants are the city of Ferguson, St. Louis County, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Delmar, Ferguson police officer Justin Cosmo, and other unnamed police officers from Ferguson and St. Louis County.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/us-usa-missouri-shooting-idUSKBN0GS2KD20140828?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[gordianot]

1. Sounds reasonable to me.

[etherealtruth]

65. Sounds reasonable, to me as well n/t

[truedelphi]

2. So, this means the lawsuit would be heard inside a Federal Court room, not a

City or state court room, right? And therefore the chances of some justice being done for the protesters is rather likely.

[msanthrope]

3. Yes. And since it alleges civil rights violations, should the Plaintiffs prevail, the Defendants

will be paying attorney's fees and costs.

[zeemike]

20. The problem is that the perps will not be paying.

It will be the tax payers that pay, and the perps will stay in office.
It means nothing to them because it is not their money that will be lost.

[BrotherIvan]

25. They should go after the personal pensions of officers of Ferguson

I agree they should sue, but unfortunately you are correct, the tax payers will pay.

[bvf]

35. I can think of worse ways to spend my tax money.

Last edited Thu Aug 28, 2014, 09:53 PM - Edit history (1)

This is a righteous cause.

I agree that going after the officers' assets would be preferable, but could that be done? I gather not.

On edit: The a**holes responsible deserve time behind bars.

[BrotherIvan]

36. I don't disagree that these people deserve compensation

But when it comes out of state coffers, it effects spending on other worthwhile programs. I'm hoping that police officers as well as everyone in leadership will also be named in the suit. And yes, they should be punished criminally as well.

[bvf]

38. Point taken.

But I hope that the prospect of a major tax bite might help a serious GOTV effort.

Get the bastards ultimately responsible for this out of office so crap like this doesn't happen again.

I'm no cock-eyed optimist, but I wish this were possible.

[valerief]

53. Bwahaha! Other worthwhile programs! Like buying friggin' tanks and uzis! nt

[BrotherIvan]

62. Well, I did mean things like education or libraries or parks

But yeah, it seems like most towns now have their own DoD budget that eats up everything.

[avebury]

63. Less tax money will hopefully mean less

money to buy military hardware.

[cstanleytech]

68. More likely they will take it out of other areas like future planned city improvements

like roads, parks and other things along those lines but they probably wont take it from the police budget.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Assuming the Judge is honest.....

unfortunately, Bush did a lot of court packing, at all levels.

[marions ghost]

13. yep

all depends on the judge--and integrity is lacking as much there as with any profession.

[cstanleytech]

69. Justice in this case is going to depend on what the evidence shows happened

and if the arrests were reasonable or not and if not then they need to figure out how much they are owed but I really doubt they will get 40 million.
My guess is they get a few hundred grand and attorney fees but that is of course only a guess.

[jwirr]

5. Good. Hopefully they will get a fair hearing.

[barbtries]

6. i like the way they jumped right on this.

there really needs to be some big changes in ferguson and undoubtedly many towns just like it.

[Dont call me Shirley]

7. Nice! I hope the protestors win!

[VanGoghRocks]

9. I hope the protesters win and authorities have to levy a special assessment on the

wealthy residents of St. Louis County to satisfy the judgment. You can have your racist constabulary but it's a gonna cost you.

[irisblue]

8. good!

[byronius]

10. Nice round figure. Maybe a little low.

[adieu]

19. Agree.

Should be 10x the amount.

[HooptieWagon]

11. Good.

StLC might have to sell their tanks and machine guns to pay the judgement.

[monmouth3]

12. I stated earlier I doubted Ferguson PD would be in operation by the end of the year. Now, I'm sure

of it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. As a matter of fact...

news item this am that Ferguson is being patrolled by State and county police, the city PD has been told to stand down.

[Bette Noir]

66. Good! It needs to be disbanded.

[L0oniX]

14. Excellent. n/t

[malaise]

15. Great news

Rec

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. rec!

[sheshe2]

17. Good!

Last edited Thu Aug 28, 2014, 09:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Alerting on Ferguson response.

REASON FOR ALERT

Disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

They are a Gawd damn bunch of RACISTS!

Thanks for your thread, dixiegrrrrl

on edit, as this was misunderstood.

see here...http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025457563#post29

[AverageJoe90]

28. Somebody actually did that? SMH, sheshe2, this was a perfectly good post, IMO. nt

[sheshe2]

29. No, Joe...

That was just my alert to the Ferguson PD, in DU form.

That town sure needs to be put on trial for their actions. Sorry if I made it unclear.

[AverageJoe90]

30. Okay. No problem. =) nt

[salin]

31. I misunderstood as well

fully appreciate it and its form, now.

The city will need to find new revenue sources - as I suspect their second biggest form of revenue is now on the radar and will become part of the suit if stepped up in order to try to build a legal fund.

[sheshe2]

37. I edited so it will not be misunderstood again.

Sorry for the confusion, salin

[salin]

39. no need to be sorry

reading the above made me more greatly appreciate the performance art (using the DU grievance format to apply to the extreme grievances in St. Louis County). Well done.

[raven mad]

33. REASON:

I'd include ignorant jerkwad motherfuckers, but that's just me!

[Man from Pickens]

18. Is that enough to bankrupt them?

If not, ask for more!

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. I would expect one of the items in the suit will address the fines issue.

Can't imagine that conditions on future behavior will not be addressed.

[ReRe]

24. K&R

Good. Good. Good. I hope it's only the first of many to follow!

[RKP5637]

26. Excellent! Maybe this will help bring this rogue out of control police department into

line. IMO the state should go in and disband the entire department and start fresh. Also, the mayor is totally out of control. And where is the governor in all of this. He seems absent except when forced into the limelight.

[AverageJoe90]

27. Good news! I hope they win out.

What unfolded in Ferguson at the hands of local cops, not just how they handled the killing of Michael Brown, but their actions afterwards, were simply unacceptable.

[Cha]

32. Good!

[WillyT]

34. HUGE K & R !!!

[redruddyred]

40. HELLS YEAH.

YOU GO FERGUSON!

[SunSeeker]

41. Let the depositions begin!

A good plaintiffs' lawyer should get some great stuff out of those soldiers...er...cops.

[Bohunk68]

43. Friendly correction, they are not soldiers or cops,

they are criminals.

[NJCher]

42. by the time this goes to court

There will be a Police Brutality Channel and we'll be able to watch legal procedings 24/7. One thing's for certain: such a channel won't run out of material. We hear of more and more cases everyday. That one about the Georgia man being tasered to death took my breath away for its cruelty.

I am happy to hear about this lawsuit. This type of behavior needs to be made so expensive that it forces police departments to adopt other, more benign types of policies.


Cher

[Bohunk68]

44. I agree. I caught it on RMS

last night. What surprised me is that the cops who did this appear to be black, just like the victim. It makes me wonder if perhaps there was something prior to this incident between the parties involved.

[Enthusiast]

46. I would totally love a Police Brutality Channel.

I would never have to tune in to Cops again. [URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Lee-Lee]

45. It probably won't go anywhere against the individual officers

Generally unless they can show they acted way, way negligently courts are very reluctant to allow individual lawsuits to proceed, despite officers getting named in cases like this all the time.

If they win against the city, it will be yen taxpayers in the city paying out so it won't be anything big a transfer of wealth from all the poor minority residents of Fergeson to a few of them- hardly real justice sadly.

[aquart]

48. Not the point. See below.

[aquart]

47. Oh, good.

Nothing like a million hours of depositions and paperwork to convince them that acting on their worst impulses is not as much fun as they thought.

This is very fine avoidance therapy.

[Gothmog]

49. The first of many lawsuits

[socialist_n_TN]

50. I hate to be Debbie Downer, but expecting justice ......

for the oppressed in a capitalist judiciary system is like expecting rain to fall upwards. That only happens in a storm and there are no storms in a court.

I predict that this will be thrown out of court at one level or another, district, appeals, or SCOTUS. The system will not allow punishment to be meted out to it's enforcers UNLESS it's the only way to calm down the proles. THEN they might sacrifice one or two low level functionaries to the people while letting the ones who ordered the depredations get away with it.

[merrily]

51. YES! YES! YES! YES!

[malthaussen]

52. I understand the motivation, but...

... where do the good citizens of Ferguson expect the $40 million will come from if they win? Why, the taxpayers -- or in other words, they're suing themselves.

-- Mal

[Lex]

54. And maybe the taxpayers will pay attention.

Not just the ones in Ferguson, but in all of St. Louis, and even the state of Mo., maybe reign in their police and put someone in charge who will set sane policy.

[malthaussen]

55. But why should they?

There's an assumption there that public officials are responsive to public pressure. Yet recent history seems to refute that assumption. Despite many complaints during the Occupy season, there was no move to rein in the police. Despite outcry during the Ferguson protests, the tear gas keeps comin'. Should the plaintiff win the case here, what will the Ferguson government do? Serve more warrants to collect more money from the citizens?

-- Mal

[Lex]

57. So your answer is to do nothing? Ridiculous.

All of St. Louis will be involved in paying up if this lawsuit is won. That will keep the problems in Ferguson front and center, which is where they should be.

[malthaussen]

59. Ah, well, if the Court finds St. Louis County liable...

... then that disposes of the monetary question. But I'd rather see criminal prosecutions, if I had my druthers. Or, to put a finer point on it, criminal convictions.

-- Mal

[cstanleytech]

70. I wouldnt count on the majority of taxpayers paying attention in Ferguson as history shows clearly

that they do not otherwise the city council wouldnt be mostly white in a city where the population of whites is only 29.3%.

[Fla Dem]

56. I agree a lawsuit is justified but where will the money come if they get a settlement? We know

the Ferguson local government gets almost 20% of their revenues from court fines and speeding tickets. And the majority of those are from the AA community. So who's going to end up paying any court settlement, unless the city has liability insurance to cover it.

"Ferguson's budget relies heavily on public safety and court fines that have skyrocketed in recent years. A review of Ferguson’s financial statements indicates that court fine collections now account for one-fifth of total operating revenue. The St. Louis suburb of about 21,000 residents took in more than $2.5 million in municipal court revenue last fiscal year, representing an 80 percent increase from only two years prior, when fines netted about $1.4 million."

http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-ferguson-missouri-court-fines-budget.html

[Lex]

58. All of St. Louis, not just Ferguson. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

60. Insurance, perhaps.

Most PDs have liability insurance.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

61. Not enough.

They should get more.

[d_b]

64. getting their money back

[PatrickforO]

67. Hope against hope that they will win, though it seems doubtful.

If they did win, though, it would send a GREAT message to militarized police forces all over the USA.

I keep thinking about the Ferguson police saying, "Hey, let's get that 9-11 stuff out!" You know, the BOYS wanted to play with their TOYS.