One year ago this week, police officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Department destroyed a peaceful, multifaith encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles. They fired “less lethal” munitions, also known as rubber bullets, indiscriminately, destroying the encampment and terrorizing peaceful protesters by any means necessary. Students, faculty members, and community members who had all assembled to share their solidarity with the victims of Israel’s violence in Gaza left with broken bones and serious wounds.
Today, Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai has joined with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA, the Law Office of Colleen Flynn, Attorney Ricci Sergienko, Kleiman/Rajaram, and the Law Offices of Thomas B. Harvey in suing the CHP and the LAPD for the harm they have caused to students and community members and their flagrant violations of state law. The State of California prohibits this indiscriminate and dangerous use of supposedly “less lethal” weapons on peaceful protestors. That prohibition is meaningless if we don’t hold law enforcement’s feet to the fire when they engage in these coordinated attacks on protests. CHP and LAPD violated our clients’ rights that are guaranteed and protected under California law.
HSRD also brings this lawsuit knowing that these were not just attacks on protestors, but an attack on our rights to free speech. The State of California and the City of Los Angeles cannot deploy militarized state violence to stop public speech and demonstrations, even if they disagree with the message of the protest.
The four plaintiffs in this case have bravely stepped forward to advocate for their personal and constitutional rights. Each suffered significant physical injuries and emotional trauma as a result of CHP and LAPD. We commend their bravery for speaking up during a period when activists are facing significant retaliation and our free speech rights are more critical than ever.
Read the complaint here.