NAACP sues city, alleges brutality in Floyd protest
Two South Bay civil rights organizations filed a classaction lawsuit Thursday accusing San Jose police of assaulting and illegally arresting at least a dozen people who protested outside City Hall after the Memorial Day 2020 death of George Floyd.
The federal lawsuit, which representatives from NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center announced during a March 11 video news conference, names the city of San Jose as the lead defendant and calls for financial compensation for plaintiffs as well as reforms to the San Jose Police Department.
San Jose police deployed “extreme violence against the community,” said attorney Tifanei ResslMoyer of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, one of four legal organizations behind the classaction filing. She described the law enforcement response to last summer’s protests as an “egregious disregard of San Jose residents’ rights.”
In the 72page federal complaint made available to reporters Thursday, plaintiffs’ attorneys write that thousands of people participated in demonstrations in San Jose after Floyd’s death in Minnesota and allege that police “fired impact munitions into the bodies of unarmed, predominately peaceful demonstrators, observers and journalists without justification; threw explosive flashbang and ‘stinger’ grenades at them; attacked them with chemical weapons; and beat them with hands and batons.”
The complaint includes graphic photos of injuries that plaintiffs say were sustained during the protests.
Plaintiffs include San Jose resident Michael Acosta, 49, who said he lost his left eye after being shot by a police projectile when he happened upon a demonstration on May 29, four days after Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
Acosta said he was running errands near the protest when he encountered “pandemonium.” He said he was struck in the face and blinded. He now uses a prosthetic and said he hasn’t regained full visual function in his remaining eye.
“The world seems darker sometimes,” he said. “Narrower. It’s harder to focus.”
Other plaintiffs said they were bruised and bloodied by police batons, struggled to breathe after being exposed to chemical gases and experienced posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in the days to follow. One of the plaintiffs is state Assembly Member Alex Lee, DSan Jose, who alleges he inhaled chemical fumes and was wrongfully arrested when the city instituted a curfew.
The Rev. Jethroe Moore, a plaintiff who said he arrived at City Hall to ease tensions, described being pushed around and gassed.
“I have never seen the Police Department so aggressive,” Moore said during the virtual news conference.
In addition to alleging police brutality, the suit says city officials violated plaintiffs’ constitutional rights by instituting the citywide curfew. Individuals named as defendants include Mayor Sam Liccardo, City Manager David Sykes and former Police Chief Eddie Garcia, as well as multiple police officers.
A city spokesperson declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.