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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Black Lives Matter Protest Liability

A district court improperly dismissed an officer’s negligence claim against the organizer of a 2016 Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge, the Fifth Circuit ruled. The officer alleges the organizer led demonstrators onto a highway and provoked an altercation between police and protestors, causing the officer’s injuries. 

BATON ROUGE, La. – A district court improperly dismissed an officer’s negligence claim against the organizer of a 2016 Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge, the Fifth Circuit ruled. The officer alleges the organizer led demonstrators onto a highway and provoked an altercation between police and protestors, causing the officer’s injuries. 

The officer has sufficiently alleged that his injuries were the result of organizer DeRay Mckesson’s “own tortious conduct in organizing a foreseeably violent protest.”

Categories / Appeals, Civil Rights

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