Two lawsuits allege that officers with the Minneapolis Police Department have used excessive force against peaceful protesters and journalists at recent demonstrations
Protesters in Minneapolis run from tear gas canisters. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images The Minneapolis Police Department now faces two lawsuits over its alleged use of excessive force at protests. One comes from a woman who says she was pepper-sprayed while participating in a peaceful protest; the other comes from a reporter who says he was both threatened with a gun and shot with a rubber bullet while covering the demonstrations.
“Over the past week, the Minneapolis Police and the Minnesota State Patrol have tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, shot in the face with rubber bullets, arrested without cause, and threatened journalists at gunpoint, all after these journalists identified themselves and were otherwise clearly engaged in their reporting duties,” the lawsuit states. “The past week has been marked by an extraordinary escalation of unlawful force deliberately targeting reporters.
Days later, Goyette posted a video to Twitter in which he can be heard shouting “press” at police as they drew their guns. Separately, on Wednesday, Annette Williams — a black woman who says she was “peacefully protesting police tactics against communities of color” with her daughter on Thursday — filed a civil complaint against the MPD and the City of Minneapolis. In it, she alleges that she was standing on the sidewalk when a line of police vehicles drove by, one of the drivers indiscriminately spraying “a chemical respiratory irritant” at the crowd from the car’s open window.
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