D.C. settles lawsuits over Trump inauguration protest arrests
Police officers pepper spray a group of protestors before the inauguration of then-President elect Trump Jan. 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Zach Gibson/AFP via Getty Images
The D.C. government agreed Monday to a $1.6 million settlement in two lawsuits that alleged police unlawfully detained over 200 protesters and other constitutional violations during former President Trump s January 2017 inauguration.
Driving the news: The suits accuse Metropolitan Police Department officers and then-Police Chief Peter Newsham of being responsible for the mass arrests of demonstrators without probable cause, unlawful conditions of confinement for detainees, and/or use of excessive force, per a statement from the ACLU.
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The class-action suits alleged mass arrests and excessive force.
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A Night of Glamorous Inaugural Balls After a Day of Protests: Part 2
The new president and his wife danced to Frank Sinatra s song My Way, a far cry from the fires and protests block from parade route earlier. Adrees Latif/Reuters
The city of Washington has reached a $1.6 million settlement in two lawsuits that included allegations of arrests without cause and excessive force on protestors during the inauguration of former President Donald Trump in January 2017.
The two lawsuits were brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia and attorney Jefferey Light, on behalf of protesters.
The ACLU of D.C. on Monday announced that the District has agreed to a $1.6 million settlement of two lawsuits over the treatment of protesters at then-President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
The ACLU said in a statement that the lawsuits one filed by the organization on behalf of six protesters and journalists; the other, a class-action suit by 100 people brought by Jeffrey Light alleged “constitutional violations” against more than two dozen police officers and then-Police Chief Peter Newsham, “including mass arrests of demonstrators without probable cause, unlawful conditions of confinement for detainees, and/or use of excessive force.”
The lawsuits allege that police officers “kettled” more than 200 protesters and denied them access to food, water and restrooms for up to 16 hours, as well as using pepper spray, flash-bang grenades and more without warning on people inside and outside the kettle.
Protestors being arrested on Swann Street on June 1. Photograph by Evy Mages
On the evening of June 1, 2020, DC police “kettled” protesters who traveled uptown after feds cleared Lafayette Square with teargas so President Trump could take a photo in front of St. John’s Church. The police accounts of why they felt they had to contain and arrest protesters, some of whom spent the night with strangers in nearby houses, do not square with the accounts of more than 50 eyewitnesses, according to a new report from the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the law firm Sidley Austin LLP.
Mayor chooses veteran officer Robert J. Contee as District’s next police chief Peter Hermann, Michael Brice-Saddler, Julie Zauzmer D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Tuesday chose Robert J. Contee III as the city’s newest police chief, forgoing a national search and picking a veteran officer and native Washingtonian to lead the force amid a period of rising homicides and social justice reckoning. Contee, a 31-year veteran who joined the force as a cadet while a senior at the now-closed Spingarn High School, will take over from Police Chief Peter Newsham on Jan. 2 and will serve on an acting basis pending confirmation by the D.C. Council. He has a wife and two children.