Suing the Detroit Police: Stopping Violence Against Black Lives Matter Protesters

Below is an excerpt from the successful Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) turned Preliminary Injunction in Detroit Will Breathe vs City of Detroit. It summarizes Detroit Police tactics prohibited by the court beginning Sept 4, 2020 through Oct 14, 2022 when protester plaintiffs won a judgement in their favor. Click on the image to read the full Order.

Detroit Will Breathe vs. City of Detroit

On August 31, 2020, the Detroit and Michigan Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild initiated a major civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Detroit Will Breathe and several individual plaintiffs. Detroit Will Breathe, et al vs City of Detroit, et al. challenges the constitutionality of the unprecedented level of violence the Detroit police inflicted on protesters during the summer of the George Floyd Uprising in defense of Black lives. We have an energetic team of young NLG attorneys - Amanda Ghannam, Jack Schulz, Melissa Brown Knox, Sean Riddell, Geoff Leonard, and others - led by our longtime NLG Board members Julie Hurwitz and Bill Goodman.

NLG attorneys succeeded in convincing U.S. District Judge Laurie J. Michelson to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the illegal and violent tactics of the Detroit Police Department in suppressing the dissent of Black Lives Matter protesters. Subsequently, the attorneys for the City of Detroit agreed to the Judge turning the TRO into a Preliminary Injunction, prohibiting the Detroit police, for the duration of the lawsuit, from using batons, shields, tear gas, rubber bullets, chokeholds, mass arrests without individualized probable cause, and other tactics against nonviolent protesters, Legal Observers, and medics.

Retaliation
On Sept 25, 2020, the City filed a Counterclaim against Detroit Will Breathe and all the other Plaintiffs, accusing them of “civil conspiracy to commit criminal acts.” The NLG legal team filed a motion to dismiss that counterclaim, which was joined by Amicus Briefs from the ACLU and from Protect The Protests (an Oregon-based national coalition that fights SLAPP suits). The Court granted the motion to dismiss with prejudice on March 10, 2021, ruling that the City failed to state a claim for civil conspiracy.

The National Lawyers Guild, Detroit and Michigan Chapter is proud to work with those in Detroit Will Breathe and others while they confront police brutality and cruel inhumanity.

8/31/2020 Press Conference