A recent CNN article, reveals that police are suing Black Lives Matter (BLM) anonymously.

“A wounded officer’s lawsuit filed in federal court in Louisiana alleges Black Lives Matter and several of its leaders are responsible for last year’s ambush on law enforcement in Baton Rouge.”

“The person who filed the lawsuit is named in the complaint only as Officer John Doe Smith.”

“Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University law professor in New Orleans, said it’s “really unusual” for the officer to sue under a pseudonym in a case of this kind. “

Police, being allowed to sue people anonymously goes well beyond being “really unusual”. The implications of police anonymously suing people, will have a detrimental effect on our justice system.
 

 Police allowed to sue people for ‘health and safety reasons’

According to an article in the Advocate, police are allowed to anonymously sue people for ‘health and safety reasons’.

“A lawyer for the officer, however, asked Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson to allow the suit to move forward and for the officer who filed it to remain anonymous for health and safety reasons.”

“On July 17, 2016, Officer John Doe Smith was in the course and scope of his duties as a duly commissioned policed officer when he was shot by a person violently protesting against police, and which violence was caused or contributed to by the leaders of and by ‘Black Lives Matter,’ a militant antipolice national organization,” the complaint says.

Police attorney Donna Grodner admitted that there is no current, credible threat of violence against the officer. (An Avvo search revealed that Grodner was disciplined by a state licensing authority.)

According to a Courthouse News article, Gavin Long never attended any Black Lives Matter protests in Baton Rouge.

If the alleged ‘health and safety reasons’ are a lie, why are police allowed to sue people anonymously?

States across the country are going out of their way to protect police and make it easier for them to arrest and sue people.

‘Blue Lives Matter’ laws will make it easier to arrest innocent people. (Click here, here & here to see recent examples.)  And states have begun using ‘Blue Alerts’ to notify the public when a law enforcement officer is injured.

Try finding an impartial jury, after police issue statewide ‘Blue Alerts’ because a police officer was injured on duty.
 

BLM protesters abused by police 

The Advocate, claims BLM protesters were packed into overcrowded cells, pepper sprayed and “treated like animals”. And The Promise of Justice Initiative’s report titled “Punished Protesters in Baton Rogue” claims that those detained for minor infractions were forced to endure threats of brutal force and humiliation for days. A 2015 article in Think Progress claims police beat a mother and daughter participating in a BLM protest.

Do you think states will use ‘BLM Alerts’ to notify the public about police abusing protesters?

Public can’t anonymously sue the police

Imagine, trying to file an anonymous lawsuit against the police, the clerk would laugh you out of the courthouse. Even if you claimed you were afraid of retaliation. (Police have a mind-boggling array of tools to spy on anyone they don’t like.)

It seems like the only people allowed to anonymously sue the police are rape victims.

There’s something seriously wrong with our justice system, when police are allowed to hide behind qualified immunity laws to avoid being sued. But are allowed to anonymously sue people.