LAS VEGAS (AP) - Several protesters, organizers and self-described “legal observers” have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Las Vegas police, claiming excessive force and free speech violations during racial justice demonstrations following the death of a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis.
A 66-page complaint accuses the department and several officers of using “unjustified” methods including corralling crowds, deploying tear gas and firing “pepper ball” projectiles toward unarmed people including journalists, attorneys and others “who posed absolutely no threat to police or the public.” Some were trying to leave protest areas at the time, the document said.
“The rights of protesters need to be protected,” Margaret McLetchie, the attorney heading the case, said Friday. “We’re very concerned about overly aggressive and illegal actions by the department.”
The lawsuit filed Sept. 25 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas alleges that officers violated departmental use-of-force policies that were revised as recently as July 8.
It seeks a court finding that police committed “willful, deliberate and clear constitutional violations” against seven plaintiffs including Black Lives Matter and union organizers, lawyers and a student watching as a non-participant in protests in May, June and July. It also seeks unspecified monetary damages.
A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesman, Officer Aden OcampoGomez, declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal case. A hearing date has not been set.
McLetchie is a civil rights lawyer who has represented The Associated Press and the Las Vegas Review-Journal in First Amendment and open-records cases. She said the lawsuit was not about the Black Lives Matter organization.
“There’s more than a little bit of irony that these actions center on protests about police misconduct,” she said.
Las Vegas police policies say projectiles including rubber bullets should be used only against a specific person posing an imminent threat to officers, or others with a weapon such as a knife, club, pipe, bottle or brick, the lawsuit said, and not during a “civil unrest situation” unless authorized by commanders.
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