Eleven people who were clubbed, teargassed, slammed to the ground, shot with impact munitions or groundlessly arrested by the police during a December 6, 2014, Berkeley demonstration filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Berkeley, then-City Manager Christine Daniel, Chief Michael Meehan, the City of Hayward, and Berkeley and Hayward officers in federal court on November 23, 2015. The plaintiffs include journalists who were covering the demonstration, as well as demonstrators. They are seeking to revamp how Berkeley polices demonstrations, as well as to be compensated for their injuries.

The December 6 protest was a March Against State Violence calling for justice for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and other unarmed Black people who have died at the hands of white police officers. "The march was largely peaceful," explained civil rights attorney Jim Chanin. "But the Berkeley Police assumed the worst and almost immediately began hitting people in an indiscriminate manner. This was illegal, and unnecessarily exacerbated tension between police and protesters. It showed a complete lack of appreciation for the fact that the demonstrators were exercising their constitutional right to speak out on very serious issues: police racist killings and the failure of our criminal justice system to hold officers accountable."

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See Also: WeCopwatch is Investigating the Police Attacks on December 6th, 2014 in Berkeley

Previous Related Indybay Feature: Anti-Police Protests in Berkeley Swell Following Eric Garner Grand Jury Announcement (2014)