LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal lawsuit surrounding Louisville Metro Police's repeated use of force and intimidation against peaceful protestors in the summer of 2020 inched forward on Wednesday.
The complaint, filed by the ACLU of Kentucky in July 2020, specifically challenges the use of tear gas and other crowd control measures used on crowds protesting the killing of Breonna Taylor.
The case remains ongoing, following a hearing in federal court Wednesday on the ACLU's motion for class certification—or in other words—a motion looking to make the case a class action lawsuit.
"We're looking to get the court to agree that this is an appropriate vehicle for a class-wide case," Corey Shapiro, ACLU of Kentucky legal director, said. "The case will go on [with] our named plaintiffs who we are grateful for, for agreeing to serve as representatives of the class."
The judge did not make a decision on the motion for class certification.
During the hours-long hearing, the defense also looked to address if the case should even be heard, arguing LMPD has put policies in place in its standard operating procedures. The policies were created shortly after the summer 2020 protests and aimed to address concerns about use of force to silence peaceful protestors.
The ACLU counter-argues there is still room to tweak LMPD policies to ensure future protestors' constitutional rights aren't violated.
"Even under the current policy, people who may be out peacefully protesting still could be subject to what literally is indiscriminate, crowd control weaponry," Shapiro said. "People should be demanding that LMPD institute significant reforms ...to make people feel safe—both when they're protesting and just in general—when they're engaged in any activity."
There's been no decision on that motion either.
"I think (the judge) said he would anticipate a ruling fairly soon, there are some other discovery issues that we're addressing right now," Shapiro said.
The ACLU also spoke on the timeliness of this hearing, following Monday's announcement that city officials met with the Department of Justice to receive and review the first draft of Louisville's consent decree and begin preliminary negotiations on Feb. 16.
According to Mayor Craig Greenberg, the DOJ has advised Metro Government that the draft must be kept confidential.
"We hope that overall, LMPD will agree to whatever reforms (the) DOJ believes is necessary to to get into line with the Constitution and and live up to their promises to protect the people of Louisville," Shapiro said.
Shapiro said ACLU of Kentucky sees this lawsuit as yet another way to ensure Louisvillians' constitutional rights going forward, much like the consent decree.
The ACLU of Kentucky released a statement Tuesday:
“As the negotiation phase of the consent decree process begins, the ACLU of Kentucky is once again amplifying the importance of meaningful community involvement in the process. There is a very long road ahead for broad-scale reform of LMPD’s policies, practices, and training. Including the voices and ideas of directly impacted community members in this process is the only way we can hope for any level of healing from the horrific abuses suffered."
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