Cops SUING Black Lives Matter For Damages

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Two cops, based in Des Moines, Iowa, talked a lawyer into filing an unusual civil suit. They’re turning the tables on Black Lives Matterâ„¢. It’s interesting to note that most of the local coverage on this story seems to prefer calling BLM the Black Liberation Movement, which is a much better fit with their tactics.

Cops sue for damages

This frivolous lawsuit filed by disgruntled cops will never get off the ground, explains professor Robert Bloom. He teaches over at the Boston College Law School. The Washington Post has his number on speed dial for legal questions. Even so, he acknowledges, the case is getting a lot of attention in the media. That may be the real purpose and if so, it’s working.

Two officers of the Des Moines Police Department, Peter Wilson and Jeffrey George, personally filed suit against six out-of-control demonstrators for injuries they allegedly sustained while attempting to do their sworn duty. They filed the paperwork as average citizens, not as representatives of the DMPD.

The cops aren’t saying how much they’re asking for but they would like to see both “actual and punitive damages.” Hopefully someone will bring donuts and coffee to the courtroom because the first hearing will probably be an eye-opening awakening for the officers.

There’s a really good chance the suit will be dismissed in the first round of motions. Then again, these days, laws are fluid things, open to judicial interpretation. If that wasn’t the case, the police wouldn’t be having these kinds of problems with protesters to start with. One thing’s for sure, these fireworks are going to be fun to watch.

Two years ago, on July 1, 2020, all six of the named defendants were arrested during a George Floyd protest. Five already “pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of assault on a police officer and/or interference with official acts.

That means they officially admit they assaulted the cops. One of the anarchists went on to win election to a city council seat. Officers Peter Wilson and Jeffrey George think they can collect from their attackers.

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Met with skepticism

Convincing the judge that their lawsuit isn’t a total waste of time will be the first hurdle for the cops. According to Professor Bloom, “it will likely be met with skepticism by the court.” Things charged in the complaint like “assault and battery” seems to be “applying criminal complaints to a civil action.

On top of that, Iowa has adopted the “fireman’s rule,” which spells out that “firefighting and policing are inherently dangerous jobs and generally bars emergency responders from suing or collecting damages for injuries that occur in the course of their duties.” There are exceptions but this isn’t one of them. “The police already have a remedy in this case, and the remedy is to charge criminally.

Violent demonstrators fight back with claims the “police escalated tensions and were heavy-handed in their handling of arrests.” The cops didn’t have to act like such pigs, they insist. They could have tried to talk it out.

On the other side, police call the protesters’ actions “nothing short of domestic terrorism.” One of the defendants, Brad Penna of Des Moines, thinks the lawsuit against him is only intended to “intimidate, function as a scare tactic, and to retaliate” against “protesters who fought back against what they saw as unjust police aggression.

In the civil suit, Penna is accused by the cops of “pulling on Wilson’s hands and arms to prevent an arrest, causing scrapes and bruises to the officer.” He says he was framed. “I did not touch Pete Wilson, or any officer, and the video footage and evidence shows that,” Penna said.

I urged and yelled at Pete Wilson to get off a young Black woman’s head. That was it. Someone may have scratched him, but it wasn’t me. I did not hurt Pete Wilson, not to mention the comparison to protesters literally being thrown to the ground, pepper sprayed, and the like.

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