By John Ruch
A federal lawsuit alleging that Atlanta Police Department (APD) officers unlawfully arrested a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in 2021 will proceed after a judge denied the City’s motion to dismiss.
The 19 plaintiffs in Baker v. City of Atlanta allege that officers broke up a peaceful protest and violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights with unlawful seizure, malicious prosecution and retaliation for free-speech activity. Among the defendants’ claims is that someone in the crowd threw an object at officers.
Drago Cepar Jr., the civil rights attorney representing the plaintiffs, said he considers the dismissal denial “a very favorable ruling.” The City did not respond to a comment request. The case now moves into discovery — the process where both sides exchange potential evidence for a trial.
Cepar is also advising more than a dozen protesters and journalists who are making similar claims about their 2022 arrests by APD and state police while covering the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” protests targeting the City’s controversial public safety training center. One of the journalists is preparing to sue shortly, according to another civil rights attorney.
Cepar has said the Black Lives Matter and Defend the Atlanta Forest cases show a kind of counter-protest pattern of police targeting journalists and using minor crimes as an excuse to arrest protesters with whom officers disagree, a practice that would be unconstitutional retaliation for First Amendment expression.
In Baker v. City of Atlanta, First Amendment retaliation is among the claims that U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown allowed to proceed. Cepar says that decision does “not necessarily” shed any light on similar claims in other cases at this point, as Brown did not go into detail. “But any time such a claim can go forward, it is a good thing,” said Cepar.
In a March 20 order, Brown dismissed some of the plaintiffs’ claims of municipal…
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