The Louisiana Supreme Court has taken up the question of whether a Black Lives Matter organizer can be held liable for a Baton Rouge police officer’s severe brain and facial wounds after being struck by a projectile during a 2016 protest.
The high court on Oct. 20 heard oral arguments in the case of Officer John Doe v. DeRay Mckesson. The hearing follows the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ call for the state Supreme Court to determine if the unnamed officer has the right to sue Mckesson, the protest organizer, under Louisiana law.
One of Mckesson’s attorneys argued at the hearing that there’s no evidence that Mckesson wanted to see violence carried out against the Baton Rouge police in July of 2016 and should not be held responsible for the act of the officer’s unknown assailant. Holding demonstration organizers liable for the actions of a third party would chill protest activities protected by the First Amendment, according to ACLU attorneys representing Mckesson.
The Louisiana justices were open to facts in the case supporting a finding that no First Amendment protections are relevant in this case, the officer’s attorney, Donna Grodner, told the Louisiana Record in an email.
“The First Amendment restrictions on reasonable time, place and matter were violated considering that McKesson violated state law by organizing and holding the protest/riot on a public highway in front of the Baton Rouge City Police Department Headquarters,” Grodner said.
The BLM protest also led to the pummeling of officers with plastic water bottles stolen from a nearby Circle K, according to documents submitted to the court by Grodner. The demonstration was held to protest the 2016 shooting death of a Black man, Alton Sterling, by a Baton Rouge police officer.
“The violence during the protest was foreseeable, and he (Mckesson) had reasonable alternatives,” such as Independence Park and the state Capitol, Grodner said.
Court papers filed by Grodner argue that the Baton Rouge protest was staged after a pattern of violent demonstrations by BLM protesters was well-established.
“It was foreseeable to a reasonable man in Mckesson’s position that police officers would be injured in the confrontation and resulting conflict, and that his negligence caused or contributed to the injuries,” she said.