On December 30, 2021, LCCRSF and co-counsel filed suit against the Sacramento Police Department and City of Sacramento on behalf of demonstrators brutalized by police during racial justice protests in 2020-21. Plaintiffs experienced extreme violence, persistent surveillance, and harassment by police even months after demonstrating for racial justice.  

The Sacramento Police Department responded with outsized and unequal force against people protesting institutionalized racism and police violence while permitting organized white supremacist groups, who align with pro-police (including Blue Lives Matter) ideologies, to demonstrate unharmed. This disparate treatment is consistent with a years-long pattern and practice of discrimination from the City of Sacramento and its police.  

One plaintiff’s home was raided months after participating in a racial justice demonstration after George Floyd was murdered by law enforcement in May 2020. Sixty Sacramento police officers, including SWAT units in tactical gear, gang units, and investigators ransacked his home and questioned him on his political ideologies. He, his pregnant wife, and elderly parents were all handcuffed in zip ties for hours.   

The Sacramento Police Department’s policies and practices are discriminatory, racist, and inhumane. They violate the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech, the Fourth Amendment’s proscription of excessive force, the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of equal protection, and protections secured by the California Constitution and other state laws. 

 This suit seeks to end the City’s discriminatory, violent tactics against people who protest against police violence and white supremacy. 

Plaintiffs are represented by LCCRSF and the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.