From L to R: Center for Protest Law and Litigation (CPLL) Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Michael Avery with National Police Accountability Project, CPLL Senior Counsel Rachel Lederman, Standing Rock water protector and attorney Wašté Win Young, Co-Counsel Melinda Power, CPLL attorney Amanda Eubanks outside the courthouse in St. Louis.
Standing Rock: Federal Appeals Court Hears Case of Law Enforcement Brutality at Backwater Bridge
By Brenda NorrellCopyright Censored News
Sept. 19, 2023
ST LOUIS -- A federal appeals court heard arguments in the class action lawsuit filed for excessive force at Backwater Bridge at Standing Rock by water protectors who suffered critical injuries. The issues argued included whether water protectors were free to leave, whether law enforcement feared for their lives, and whether the use of munitions, bean bags filled with shot, and water sprayed on water protectors in temperatures below freezing, were justified or legal.
Rachel Lederman, lead counsel for water protectors, told the Eighth Circuit Appeals Court's three-member panel of judges, that the district court based its decision in favor of law enforcement are disputed.
“The story defendants have put forth to justify their use of force is hotly disputed."
Lederman an attorney with the Center for Protest Law and Litigation, said that a jury should decide whether it was objectionably reasonable for officers to bombard hundreds of individuals with high-pressure water hoses, impact munitions, explosives, and chemical agents for ten hours, causing serious injuries, for the people that were allegedly causing problems.
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