Protesters sue Kenosha saying arrests, curfew violate US Constitution
The US city of Kenosha in Wisconsin and county governments have been sued by four anti-racism protesters for what they described as denial of the free speech rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.
They said that while over 150 protesters had been taken into custody, pro-police demonstrators had been allowed to freely take to the streets, reads the lawsuit filed in federal court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Tuesday.
"In Kenosha, there are two sets of laws - one that applies to those who protest police brutality and racism, and another for those who support the police," the plaintiffs argue in their suit, which seeks a temporary restraining order until the litigation can be heard in court.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, was lodged on the same day that President Donald Trump paid a visit to the city and promised to increase funding for its police force.
Kenosha has been the scene of fresh wave of protests after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man, multiple times in front of his children during an arrest on August 23.
The shooting of the unarmed African American is said to have left him paralyzed from the waist down, and has since sparked violent rallies in Kenosha as well as other cities across the United States, with protesters setting buildings and cars.
Trump branded as “domestic terror” anti-racism protests in Kenosha, saying, "These are not acts of peaceful protest but really domestic terror."
In their complaint, the protesters assert that law enforcement officers were using the curfew to prevent them from participating in constitutionally protected activity.
They also say police are selectively enforcing the curfew by not apprehending pro-police demonstrators, a move that violates equal protection under the law guaranteed by the constitution.
The protests swept through the US back in May, when another African American, George Floyd was choked to death by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Protests then spread to more cities in the US and across the world as Trump threatened protesters near the White House with the use of “the most vicious dogs and most ominous weapons,” reverberating memories of suppressing the uprising of blacks across the country during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
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