Detroit City Council approves funding for counter-lawsuit against police violence protesters
As reported earlier by the
World Socialist Web Site, attorneys representing the City of Detroit, Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit Police Chief James Craig and several police officers filed a countersuit against DWB protesters for “civil conspiracy,” inciting riots, destroying public property and other “illegal acts” on September 25.
Protesters march in a rally in Detroit, Wednesday, June 3, 2020 (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
The countersuit was part of the city’s response to a lawsuit filed by DWB in August that resulted in the imposition of a temporary restraining order against the use by Detroit Police Department (DPD) officers of excessive force against demonstrators.
Detroit saw a summer of civil unrest that will be remembered for generations.
Thousands of people hit the streets daily for months to protest police brutality and the treatment of Black people in the U.S. Tear gas coated the sky, rubber bullets flew, and hundreds of protesters were arrested. All the while, the novel coronavirus ran its course through Detroit, killing more people in the city than anything else aside from heart disease.
Also in 2020, the FBI said it foiled a plot involving more than a dozen men planning to kidnap and possibly kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; the Detroit Police Department significantly expanded its surveillance capabilities on several fronts; Detroit had a bloody year, with a sharp increase in shootings and homicides; Wayne County s sheriff died of COVID-19; and despite many fewer cars on the road, there was an uptick in fatal crashes and freeway shootings.