Over the past year, the streets of Detroit, like many other U.S. cities, have seen repeated violent protests and vandalism sparked by “Black Lives Matter,” also known as Black Lives Matter.
According to The Intercept, the city has filed a lawsuit against BLM activists, accusing them of a “civil conspiracy” that has led to protests in the city “that have repeatedly turned violent and endangered the lives of police and the public.
The city cited four protests in the city this year during which police officers were injured, including “broken vertebrae, lacerations and concussions,” the report said.
According to the charges, the activists “involved in the conspiracy” “defamed” the mayor and police, and the city should be compensated.
The report said the city’s repeated violent incidents would overrule the BLM protest group Detroit Will Breathe’s claim that the demonstrations should be protected by the First Amendment.
But the city’s move has angered critics, including Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D). In a November op-ed published in the Detroit Free Press, Tlaib blasted the city’s move as “an unthinkable attack on our constitutional rights.
The lawsuit is in fact a countersuit to earlier allegations by BLM activists, who filed a lawsuit against the city in late August, accusing police of “repeatedly responding with violence” to demonstrators’ protests.
As a result, a judge on Sept. 4 ordered Detroit police to stop using riot control tools and tactics such as batons, shields and rubber bullets against the protesting crowd.
City Police Chief James Craig responded at the time, saying his force had never used force against peaceful protesters.
“If someone resists arrest or tries to attack one of our officers, we will use force that is both reasonable and necessary to overcome the resistance.” He told the Detroit News at the time, “We don’t want protesters to get hurt, and we don’t want officers to get hurt.”
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