Trump sued for getting demonstrators ousted

NYC SIMMERS Doctors, nurses treating Covid patients join anti-racism protests

nWASHINGTON: Civil rights groups in America filed a case suing US President Donald Trump after security forces had used tear gas, pepper spray canisters and flashbang grenades to clear peaceful demonstrators outside the White House, in Lafayette Park on Monday. The lawsuit came as the White House fortified the barricades surrounding it.

The lawsuit, filed by rights groups on behalf of Black Lives Matter and individual protesters who were evicted from the scene, alleges violation of the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly and Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable seizure.

It has been filed against Trump, attorney general William Barr, who has accepted responsibility for the action, defence secretary Mark Esper, who had cleared the deployment of US military personnel and assets in the area, and heads of law enforcement agencies involved.

In New York City, doctors, nurses and hospital workers who have been working with Covid-19 patients protested outside various hospitals seeking justice following the custodial killing of George Floyd, an African-american man, in Minneapolis on May 25. In Buffalo, two police officers were suspended after they were seen shoving an elderly white man to the ground.

Negotiators for the city of Minneapolis have agreed with the state to ban the use of chokeholds by police, and to require police to intervene any time they see an unauthorised use of force by another officer.

In the UK, health secretary Matt Hancock called on people to avoid large protests.

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