Many of the citations in Detroit, the city said, stemmed from a citywide curfew on May 31 and June 1-2 that prohibited activity after 8 p.m. unless it was connected to work, going to the doctor, pharmacy or grocery store and for disruptive and violent behavior.
Protesters against police brutality sued the city of Detroit on Monday, seeking to ban police from using batons, riot gear, tear gas and rubber bullets against them.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court claims Detroit police used those objects to fracture bones, inflict baseball-size lumps and concussions, collapse lungs and cause other injuries that left Black Lives Matter protesters hospitalized and disoriented during marches in Detroit that started on May 29.
by Violet Ikonomova
A Detroit Will Breathe protest in the summer of 2020. (file photo) Detroit City Council on Tuesday approved $200,000 in spending on a lawsuit seeking damages from largely peaceful racial-justice demonstrators who the city claims were part of a civil conspiracy. The contract with the Clark Hill law firm will go toward defending the city against an excessive-force suit filed by Detroit Will Breathe and supporting its counterclaim against the activist group. The spending was approved in a contentious 5-4 vote, with councilmembers opposed arguing it could have a chilling effect on dissent and that a countersuit is not needed to prove whether demonstrators acted inappropriately.