September 2018 Archives

Hadsell Stormer & Renick LLP's Dan Stormer, Joshua Piovia-Scott and Cindy Pánuco, together with the ACLU of Arizona and Phoenix-based civil rights attorney Dan Pochoda filed a class action lawsuit today against the City of Phoenix, Chief of Phoenix Police Jeri Williams, and a number of Phoenix police officers for violating the rights of thousands of peaceful anti-Trump protesters who were gathered during and after a rally the president held on August 22, 2017, at the Phoenix Convention Center. Without warning, the Phoenix Police Department fired more than 590 rounds of pepper bullets, tear gas canisters and other dangerous projectiles at peaceful protestors, including children, elderly people, people with disabilities and pregnant women. The suit was filed on behalf of the community organizations Puente and Poder in Action and four individuals who will represent a class of people whose First Amendment protected viewpoints critical of the president were violently suppressed by Phoenix police. "It took Phoenix police 30 minutes from the time they started unlawfully shooting at protesters to issue a dispersal order. Even as protestors ran away from the attack, officers continued firing projectiles into the crowds," said Cindy Pánuco, an attorney with Hadsell Stormer Renick LLP, co-counsel for the plaintiffs. "Protestors wanted to convey the message that the racist and anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration must end. The Phoenix Police Department used violence to stop this message from being conveyed, injuring hundreds of people in the process."