For Immediate Release 
 

January 4, 2021  

Media Contact 

Sam Lew, 415-272-8022, slew@lccrsf.org  

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area 

***PRESS RELEASE*** 

Sacramento Police Department Sued for Repressing Racial Justice Protesters with Violence, Surveillance, and Home Raids

SACRAMENTO —A lawsuit was recently filed against the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Police Department by demonstrators brutalized by police during Black Live Matters protests in 2020. Plaintiffs experienced violence, surveillance, and home raids by police for months after engaging in anti-racist protesting. The suit seeks to end the City’s discriminatory, violent tactics against anti-police brutality protesters. 
 

Plaintiffs are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, and law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. 

“The Sacramento Police Department have blatantly violated anti-police brutality protesters’ Constitutional right to assemble and demonstrate,” said Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, Thurgood Marshall Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. “Our plaintiffs have been so severely targeted, threatened, and brutalized by police, they no longer fully engage in their First Amendment right to protest. They continue to suffer tremendous physical, psychological, and emotional harm arising from the excessive force and discrimination.”  

One plaintiff’s home was raided months after participating in one May 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Sacramento by sixty police officers, including SWAT units in tactical gear, gang units, and investigators. He, his pregnant wife, and elderly parents were all handcuffed in zip ties for hours and the plaintiff was arrested.  

“I come from a family that has been involved in racial justice activism for decades. The recent racist killings by police made me even more committed to anti-racism and standing in solidarity with Black People. That is why I took part in protests during the summer of 2020, but the extreme and discriminatory responses from police have made it too dangerous. They targeted me for my anti-racism activities and endangered the lives of my pregnant wife and unborn child. This is a  type of trauma and it’s hard to overcome,” said Jeronimo Aguilar, one of the plaintiffs in the case.  

“This lawsuit challenges a history of racist policing that has existed in Sacramento and affected generations of anti-racist, anti-police brutality protesters. The Sacramento Police Department’s response to, and the City’s encouragement of their response, to the 2020 and 2021 protests is but the tip of the iceberg. Our clients, and the community at large, seek an end to this traumatizing, violent history,” said Pilar Gonzalez Morales, Director of Accessibility Project at CREEC. 

“Wilson Sonsini is deeply committed to aiding in efforts aimed at achieving justice and equity across the country. We are energized to join LCCRSF and CREEC on this case,” stated Luke Liss, Senior Counsel and Pro Bono Counsel from Wilson Sonsini.

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A recording of the press conference can be viewed here.  

The Complaint can be viewed here.