DOJ report: Louisville police repeatedly violated Free Speech rights of protesters

---

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that Louisville police unlawfully overstepped in their response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, observing that the use of violence by many officers against protesters violated the First Amendment, and pointing to deeper systemic issues of misconduct and civil rights violations within the force. 

Key Players

The Department of Justice (DOJ), headed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, oversees the administration of justice, particularly regarding federal law and violations by a state or municipality. 

The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD), with approximately 1,000 sworn officers, according to the DOJ report, serves the Louisville metropolitan area of Kentucky, which has a population of about 630,000.

Black Lives Matter (BLM), a protest movement that seeks to combat anti-Black racism, was founded in 2013 after George Zimmerman, a white man who fatally shot Black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in February 2012, was acquitted of second-degree murder. BLM resurged after the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020. As unrest and violence broke out at some demonstrations, critics accused BLM of instigating property damage, looting, and physical violence. Others maintained that police behaved unlawfully, attacking protesters and journalists at such events. According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a nonprofit that measures crisis-related incidents, an analysis of more than 7,750 BLM demonstrations in the United States revealed that more than 93% of protests between May 26 and Aug. 22, 2020, were peaceful.

Further Details

In March 2020, massive backlash followed after LMPD officers conducted a raid on the home of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, and shot and killed her. The incident led to the resignation of nearly 190 officers, Fox News reported. Three months later, the city council unanimously voted to ban “no-knock” warrants like the one employed at Taylor’s home.

On April 26, 2021, the DOJ opened an investigation into LMPD to assess whether its use of force violated any constitutional rights. Nearly two years later, on March 8, 2023, the DOJ published its findings in a 90-page report that focused on First and Fourth Amendment violations. 

With its First Amendment findings, the DOJ was primarily concerned with police conduct during anti-police protests in 2020, prefacing that “protests about policing pose unique challenges for law enforcement. In these events, responding officers will likely hear intense criticism of themselves, colleagues, their profession, and the actions they take in the moment. Likewise, protesters may find police presence provocative. Inappropriate actions by individuals in either group can quickly escalate to the detriment of both public safety and free speech.” However, the report states, “these factors do not make police protests so inherently violent, lawless, or dangerous as to be entitled less First Amendment protection.”

In the case of the 2020 protests after Taylor’s death, the report found that by using force against peaceful demonstrators “without individualized and adequate justifications, LMPD repeatedly retaliated against speech, in violation of the First Amendment.” Police fired less lethal rounds at protesters who posed no realistic threat to their safety and used excessive force in arresting protesters who had not resisted arrest or tried to flee and, in several instances, police had even injured protesters.

LMPD mass-arrested protesters for “vague subjective reasons, like causing ‘annoyance,’ ‘alarm,’ or ‘inconvenience,’” reasons that the DOJ found to be insufficient and led to wrongful arrest.

The DOJ found that such uses of force, far from isolated and unfortunate incidents, all stemmed from “deficient policy, training, planning, and management.” It also noted that LMPD did not do enough to review meaningfully how it would approach BLM demonstrators during the 2020 protests, and that many officers failed to report when they used force, a requirement of the job. These systemic issues exacerbated and further fueled Free Speech violations, the report charges.

Outcome 

DOJ recommends systemwide changes

The DOJ outlined a list of changes for LMPD to make to improve its practices, as well as to prevent future violations of civil rights. The 36 recommendations include enhancing official policies and training, requiring consistent body-worn cameras, facilitating access to complaint procedure, and fully staffing internal affairs.

“The remedies described in this report provide a starting point for ending Louisville Metro’s and LMPD’s pattern or practice of unlawful conduct,” the report states. “We look forward to working with city and police leaders, officers, and the broader Louisville community to stop the unlawful practices, build trust, and ensure that Louisville Metro and LMPD serve and protect the people of Louisville.”

In an interview with NPR, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke said DOJ plans to file a consent decree, which would legally obligate LMPD to follow the recommendations of the report.

“The consent decree will have real teeth and require that this department makes some hard changes in order to ensure that we don’t see a repeat of the kinds of problems that we’ve encountered here, including the discrimination against Black people, discrimination against people with disabilities and more,” Clarke said. “An independent monitor will provide oversight every step of the way to make sure that the police department is staying on track and hitting the goals.”

Louisville mayor vows continued dialogue, reforms after report

Mayor Craig Greenberg (D), who assumed office in January 2023, told NPR that the report painted “a very painful picture of our past.” 

“Just from our conversations with the Department of Justice over the past few days and yesterday, they are very focused on our training, ensuring that we have the right leaders in place at LMPD and that they have the right training for all of our officers,” said Greenberg, later adding that he thought LMPD was “ready to embrace this — it was definitely a difficult day for them as well yesterday — but we need to deal with the hard truths of the past so we can move forward together as a community.”

Greenberg said his office would ensure that LMPD improved to the DOJ’s satisfaction, but also noted the challenge of understaffing, an issue he says has made effective policing difficult. 

“We are nearly 300 officers short, which means we have fewer officers working in the neighborhoods, with community leaders, with members of the clergy, with small business owners that are working to prevent crime,” Greenberg said. “And so I am strongly supportive of having more police officers, we are just going to make sure they have the right training and resources and leadership they need so that they can work collaboratively with the community, in a way that we’re proud of, to prevent crime.”