Police officer injured in deadly ambush last year sues Black Lives Matter

[Travis B]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-li...eray-mckesson/

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A federal lawsuit accuses Black Lives Matter and five of the movement's leaders of inciting violence that led to a gunman's deadly ambush of police officers in Baton Rouge last summer.

DeRay Mckesson and four other Black Lives Matter leaders are named as defendants in the suit filed Friday on behalf of one of the officers wounded in the July 17, 2016, attack by a black military veteran, Gavin Eugene Long, who killed three other officers before he was shot dead.

The suit doesn't name the plaintiff, but its description matches East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Deputy Nicholas Tullier.

The attorneys representing Tullier previously sued Black Lives Matter and Mckesson on behalf of a Baton Rouge police officer who was injured at a protest over a deadly police shooting last July.

"This is quite a world," Mckesson said Friday when a reporter informed him of the latest lawsuit.

Gavin Long, a 29-year-old former Marine from Kansas City, Missouri, was armed with a semi-automatic rifle when he killed three officers and wounded three others outside a convenience store and car wash near Baton Rouge police headquarters.

Long's tours of duty included Japan and Iraq. He rose to the rank of sergeant and received an honorable discharge.

But in 2015, he declared himself a "sovereign citizen," aligning himself with a movement which federal authorities have called a "growing domestic threat," CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reported. Sovereign citizens believe government and law enforcement do not hold any authority.

In a 2011 FBI law enforcement bulletin, the agency called sovereign citizens "a growing domestic threat to law enforcement" and said "the FBI considers sovereign-citizen extremists as comprising a domestic terrorist movement."

Long described himself as a life coach, nutritionist and personal trainer. He posted his thoughts in a series of YouTube videos.

"I thought my own thoughts, I made my own decisions, I'm the one who gotta listen to the judgment," Long said in one video.

In a separate video posted 10 days before the shooting, Long said he was "affiliated with the spirit of justice."

"Don't affiliate me with nothing," Long said. "Yeah, I was also a Nation of Islam member, I'm not affiliated with it… They'll try to put you with ISIS or some other terrorist group -- no."

Long also left behind a note saying he believed he had to inflict harm "upon bad cops as well as good cops in hopes that the good cops (which are the majority) will be able to stand together and enact justice and punishment against bad cops."

During the ambush, Long shot Tullier in the head, stomach and shoulder, leaving him with brain damage. By December, the 42-year-old father of two had emerged from a vegetative state, regained some movement of his body and was able to communicate nonverbally.

The attack came less than two weeks after a white Baton Rouge police officer shot and killed Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man. Mckesson was one of nearly 200 people arrested in Louisiana's capital at nightly protests after Sterling's July 5 death.

Friday's lawsuit claims Mckesson was "in charge of" a July 9 protest that "turned into a riot." Mckesson "did nothing to calm the crowd and, instead, he incited the violence" on behalf of Black Lives Matter, the suit alleges.

The suit describes Long as an "activist whose actions followed and mimicked those of" the sniper who killed officers in Dallas days earlier. The suit also claims Black Lives Matter leaders incited others to harm police "in retaliation for the death of black men killed by police" and "all but too late" began to denounce the shootings of police after the Baton Rouge attack.

"Obviously, at this point talk show hosts were holding them responsible, and they were having to defend the blame and responsibility for what they had caused whether in whole or in part," the suit says.

Mckesson said he hadn't spoken to his attorney, Billy Gibbens, about the lawsuit and couldn't immediately comment on its allegations. Gibbens declined to comment.

During a court hearing last month, Gibbens argued Black Lives Matter is a movement, not an organization that can be sued. The federal judge assigned to the first suit against Mckesson hasn't ruled on that yet.

Thoughts? Does the officer have a case?

[Freighter]

I'm curious how you would sue a non-centralized movement.

[Toppy]

Whoa now, you can't hold people responsible for their own actions. ITS 2017!

I'm curious how you would sue a non-centralized movement.

Thats the scary part of this. If nothing comes of it, it'll lead others to (rightfully) believe they will not be held responsible for their actions so long as they're just far enough away from it to dodge blame.

[Pony Soldier]

I'm curious how you would sue a non-centralized movement.

This is what I'd like to know.

[JohnBrown1917]

>Suing a leaderless movement.


Only in 'murica.

[Dezerte]

Seems weird. Is 4chan getting sued next?

[pathora44]

So when is Alex Jones or that conspiracy sub reddit getting sued for that Pizzagate whack job for running into private business with a gun because he thought there was child sex ring being run by Clinton and the Democrats. Those people have been pushing ever since the email hacks and that someone should do something. According to this lawsuit Alex Jones and that sub reddit are just as guilty as these BLM leaders. Unless you have evidence that those people told that person directly to kill/harm police or told the protestors to kill/harm police then this whole lawsuit is a bunch of bullshit.

[primalmatter]

Soros sponsored them... I could see a weak case for incitement.

Weak is the keyword however.

[JohnBrown1917]

Seems weird. Is 4chan getting sued next?

You mean the hacker known as '4chan'?

[Azadina]

Seems pretty weak unless they can prove those guys ordered the shooting.

[Endus]

Seems like it's going to be nearly impossible to win.

If he's suing BLM itself rather than McKesson personally, he'd have to demonstrate it's incited by their official policies, which it wasn't. But the case seems to be against the 5 leaders personally, not BLM, so the title's a bit off.

Even against the leaders personally, he'd have to identify and have evidence of specific statements that specifically incited people to riot. Which is going to be challenging. To make up something deliberately alarming, if they were chanting stuff like "these motherfucking pigs have to be stopped", that's not inciting to riot. It's rude and mean, but well, free speech. They'd have to catch them on tape or with lots of supportive (and non-cop) witnesses all agreeing that they were chanting stuff like "let's burn this place down" or "let's fucking beat those assholes to death" or whatever. Which I'd not support, just to be excruciatingly clear; I'm making up possibilities to show the distinction between "speech you don't want to hear but have to suck it up and deal with" and "actually inciting a riot".

If those leaders personally assaulted cops, that's not inciting a riot, it's an assault charge.

And if someone else at the riot assaulted cops, and you can't find any inciting dialogue by these leaders that specifically pushed that kind of response, the case has no merit and should be dismissed. And honestly, the legal fees of the accused compensated by the accusers, for having no basis whatsoever for wasting the court's time.

[dextersmith]

I hope it's the first of many lawsuits against them.

I'm curious how you would sue a non-centralized movement.

Don't they have chapters?

[Freighter]

Don't they have chapters?

I don't know what chapter means outside of books, sorry.

[Spectral]

The headline writer has chosen poorly. He's essentially suing McKesson and the other leaders that were present and accused of egging on a crowd to incite violence.

I have no idea if the facts of the case will be sufficient to result in the officer winning the suit or not, but I hope defending this costs McKesson a shitload of money.

[dextersmith]

Seems pretty weak unless they can prove those guys ordered the shooting.

They incited hate and violent actions.

[pathora44]

Also can't we sue Richard Spencer for Dylan Roof killing 9 innocent black church goers because Spencer calls for the ethnic cleansing.

[dextersmith]

I don't know what chapter means outside of books, sorry.

Local establishments, they have leaders for different areas.

[Endus]

They incited hate and violent actions.

You'd need to actually have proof of that. You wanting it to be true isn't enough.

[Deleted]

>Suing a leaderless movement.


Only in 'murica.

If a mob goes violent, you can perfectly well sue the main agitators.

[Bullettime]

They incited hate and violent actions.

You have to have solid evidence that the officials named personally incited the violence through a direct order or comment.