JACKSONVILLE – An attorney, defending plaintiffs who claim they were manhandled by Jacksonville Sheriff's officers while protesting the killing of George Floyd, said a lawsuit will seek damages for excessive use of force.
“The First Amendment is the bedrock of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” attorney Matthew R. Kachergus with the Jacksonville-based law firm of Sheppard, White, Kachergus, DeMaggio & Wilkison told the Florida Record in an email. “Its protections are especially important when people are protesting abusive police practices and institutional racism."
Kachergus said the right to free speech and assembly cannot and should not be suppressed by the very same officers and institutions who are the subject of the constitutionally protected speech and assembly.
“The policing of protesters in Jacksonville has violated their fundamental First Amendment rights,” he said.
In a report from Jacksonville.com, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams responded that the measures taken for crowd control were necessary to keep the city safe.
The suit lists four plaintiffs and five sworn officers as defendants, including Williams.
Filed on June 19 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the lawsuit arises out of police actions on May 31 outside the Duval County Courthouse in which the lawsuit alleges the officers used improper and excessive force on demonstrators.
The suit said the crowd of protesters was not overly large and that after a command was given to disperse by officers and members of the crowd began to comply, police began using force and arresting protesters.
A filmmaker documenting the protest named Bernardo Santana was allegedly grabbed from behind, thrown to the pavement and then arrested, the plaintiff document stated.
“Even from the arresting officers’ accounts, the protestors were dispersed at the time of their arrests,” the lawsuit said.
Video footage allegedly showed that one officer had a protester in a chokehold while another officer punched a protester in the face, the document claimed.
The officers also allegedly used chemical spray on protesters.
In the Jacksonville.com report, Kachergus predicted more possible trouble and what he described as “heavy-handed tactics” by police once the Republican National Convention comes Jacksonville August 24-27.
The lawsuit demanded that police cease calling for crowd dispersal unless a present danger exists, to forbid arresting protesters without giving them a sufficient amount of time to heed dispersal warnings, and dispel with using chemical agents unless they have to be used as a last resort.
"This lawsuit is about (police) giving unlawful dispersal orders, using violence and chemical agents to enforce those orders, and unlawfully arresting people as they exercised their fundamental First Amendment rights,” Kachergus told the Florida Record in an email. “It is not a crime to speak out about racially discriminatory police violence. The history of police violence against African American people in this country is shameful. Unfortunately, this injustice is also occurring in our community.”
Kachergus said concerned individuals throughout the city have a constitutional right to assemble and raise their voices in condemnation of discriminatory police misconduct, without fear of police violence or unlawful arrest.