Beverly Hills and BHPD Sued For Handling Of Protesters

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The City of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Police Department are named in a lawsuit filed by more than 40 people arrested in Los Angeles County last summer. The lawsuit alleges that the city and police department, along with Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and several others in Los Angeles County, violated the protesters’ constitutional and civil rights through curfews, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In a lawsuit filed Feb. 26 with Los Angeles Superior Court, plaintiff Alejandra Garcia accuses the BHPD of using “excessive force” at protests in the city on June 12 and 26. The suit alleges that Beverly Hills police shot Garcia at least two times with rubber bullets, threw tear gas canisters at a dangerous distance, and detained Garcia and other plaintiffs in a small area while using a Long-Range Acoustic Device.

The suit also alleges that on June 26, BHPD officers beat, gassed, and again targeted Garcia with a Long-Range Acoustic Device while she was peacefully protesting. It claims that Garcia was detained for 26 hours without food or water, and only given one phone call.

Beverly Hills spokesperson Keith Sterling told Patch that the city is reviewing the claim.

Many criticized the BHPD for its handling of the above-named events. On June 12, a group of roughly 50 activists protesting the death of George Floyd and police brutality planned to carry bullhorns and amplified music into a residential neighborhood late at night near Beverly Gardens Park for a night of music, dance, and speeches. But before they could enter, police met the group on North Alpine Drive around 11 p.m. and declared the group an unlawful assembly. Through a megaphone, they instructed the crowd to disperse.

When the crowd remained, police dispersed a Long-Range Acoustic Device two times, according to a report in Los Angeles Magazine. Police then began shooting a barrage of tear gas canisters and sponge bullets, which footage shows ricocheting off of street signs and hitting protesters, causing at least one mall to fall.

In response, the city indefinitely banned nighttime gatherings of 10 or more people on residential streets after 9 p.m. In November, the Beverly Hills City Council amended the ban to either 7 p.m. or a half-hour after sunset - whichever is sooner. This change followed a number of more restrictions on meetings of over 25 or more people on city paths, 75 or more people in a public area that would impede traffic flow, or any gathering of more than 500 people.

The lawsuit called the many permanent and temporary curfews imposed by Beverly Hills and other cities a “tool of oppression.”

“Its purpose was to create a lasting chilling effect on the lawful exercise of speech, stopping individuals from participation in peaceful assembly,” the suit alleged. “Under the guise of action to stop looting, mass arrests were made of people committing no crime but speaking truth to power.”

After the new curfews were instituted, the city came under fire over reports that it had held 28 protesters, including Garcia, for over 14 hours for unlawful assembly, curfew violations and accusations that one protester was attempting to light a building on fire. The Beverly Hills Police Department said about 100 protesters sat in the middle of Santa Monica Boulevard between North Alpine and North Rexford drives, and again attempted to enter a residential neighborhood late at night.

One protester claimed on Twitter that they were held for 18 hours with no phone calls, and their friend was denied medication. “It is outrageous that during a statewide health crisis, and when, as we have been hearing from our local, state, and federal officials, the number of COVID-19 cases in California are continuing to rise, that the Beverly Hills Police Department would hold these peaceful protesters in custody,” the National Lawyers Guild said in a statement. “Keeping these men and women in custody will unnecessarily expose them to significant health risk and endanger their lives.”

At the time, Sterling said that the protesters were released with no bail enhancements, but the process took longer than usual because of the number of people arrested, and the city brought in extra staff to protest claims.

This latest lawsuit is just one of many filed against localities and police departments following the George Floyd-related protests in June. A class action lawsuit brought by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Community Action Network filed a suit against the LAPD alleging that arrestees were subjected to intentionally inhuman treatment. Of the 4,146 arrests made by the LAPD between May 28 and June 8, nearly 90 percent were for nonviolent offenses like curfew violations or failure to disperse, according to the Los Angeles Times.