$200M Civil Rights Class Action Lawsuit Filed over Ferguson Police Response

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Black Lawyers for Justice (BLFJ) has posted an announcement on its website that it will be filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of victims whose rights were allegedly violated by the St. Louis County and Ferguson Police Departments following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer.

“The lawsuit seeks heavy, heavy damages and compensation for victims of excessive force, false arrest and other Constitutional Rights violations at the hands of the militarized Ferguson Police department and St. Louis County Police Departments in the immediate days following the killing of Michael Brown,” the BLFJ says. “Many law-abiding citizens’ Human and Civil Rights were violated by a heavily armored, rampaging Ferguson and St. Louis Police Departments in a strikingly similar way that the community claims Michael Brown’s rights were violated.”

The BLFJ has indicated that it will post the Ferguson class action lawsuit by noon on August 28 on www.blfjustice.org.

On August 13, BLFJ issued a demand letter to the police departments, ordering them to cease and desist violations of human rights and to release the name of the officer who killed Michael Brown. “Obviously, the police have not been trained to deal with demonstrators and they have not been supervised properly,” the demand letter said. “They have made serious errors.”

Brown, 18, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. as he walked in the street on August 9. While the circumstances surrounding the shooting are disputed, it has been established that Brown was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

Brown’s death has spawned outrage among the citizens of Ferguson who staged a candlelight vigil in his honor. However, the situation soon turned violent. At least a dozen businesses were vandalized and more than 30 people were arrested the day after Brown’s death. Images of officers shooting rubber bullets and throwing tear gas at protestors dominated the media. Journalists who were reporting on the situation in Ferguson were detained and taken to jail. The National Guard was called in to help control the situation.

UPDATE: The Ferguson civil rights class action lawsuit was filed on August 28 against Thomas Jackson, the Chief of Police for the City of Ferguson; John Belmar, the Chief of Police for St. Louis County, Mo.; and Justin Cosma, a City of Ferguson police officer. It also lists St. Louis County and the City of Ferguson as well as a number of unnamed police officers as defendants.

The Ferguson class action lawsuit brings allegations of false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision, deprivation of civil rights and assault and battery. “Plaintiffs allege, among other things, that Defendants intentionally, negligently and/or recklessly caused Plaintiffs to be subjected to unnecessary and unwarranted force, arrests that were not based upon probable cause, and other violations of their constitutional rights,” the class action lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs report numerous instances of unlawful arrest, shootings with rubber bullets, assaults and being subjected to tear gas. They express the terror they experienced due to police officers driving military style trucks, dressed in full riot gear.

“As a direct and proximate result of the actions of Defendants, Plaintiffs suffered discomfort, distress and loss of liberty; and have suffered, and will continue to suffer, psychological harm and mental anguish including fright, shame, mortification, humiliation and embarrassment from the indignity and disgrace of being unlawfully arrested, taken into custody, and otherwise grossly deprived of their civil rights,” the plaintiffs claim in their Ferguson civil rights lawsuit.

The Ferguson Civil Rights Class Action Lawsuit is Tracey White, et al. v. Thomas Jackson, et al., Case No. 4:14-cv-01490-HEA, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.