FORT LAUDERDALE — It was a Sunday, six days after George Floyd died on a street in Minneapolis after an officer knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Outraged Americans took to the streets in protest nationwide.
In Fort Lauderdale, tear gas permeated the air on May 31, 2020, burning the eyes of a crowd gathered to protest the police brutality that caused Floyd’s death.
Police, who later said protesters became violent, fired rubber bullets into the dispersing crowd.
Now, four years later, attorneys have filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the city of Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
The same attorneys are representing LaToya Ratlieff in a lawsuit filed in 2022, two years ago to the day after she was hit in the face with a rubber bullet. Ratlieff is expected to join her legal team at noon Monday in downtown Fort Lauderdale to announce the class-action suit.
Ratlieff and her attorneys, Ben Kuehne, Michael Davis and Stuart Ratzan, plan to gather in the same spot where she was standing when she was injured, at the corner of Southeast Second Street and First Avenue.
The lawsuit says hundreds of people were peacefully demonstrating against police brutality on May 31, 2020, when officers, without warning, used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
Through video, interviews, reports and other public records, it is clear that officers with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department initiated and escalated the violence against the peaceful protesters without warning or cause, the attorneys argue. Video and depositions of the officers show the violence got underway when an officer falsely claimed her vehicle was being attacked by protesters, according to the class-action lawsuit filed on Friday.
As they fired 100 rounds of rubber bullets at the protesters, Fort Lauderdale police officers celebrated, joked and congratulated one another, the lawsuit says. Body-camera footage shows some officers shouted “get that m———–” and “pop his a–” during the encounter.
“The police action was unconstitutional,” the lawsuit says. “This class action seeks justice and compensation on behalf of every peaceful demonstrator assembled that day.”
The lawsuit currently has three plaintiffs: Jayanna Jackson, Mike Gabelus and Scott Ross.
But the attorneys say they believe there are more victims out there. The attorneys say people who were subjected to tear gas, rubber bullets or other abuses by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department while exercising their First Amendment rights on May 31, 2020, are members of the class action and eligible to join as additional plaintiffs. They asked them to contact Kuehne Davis Law at Protest@FLProtest.com for more information.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan