The American Civil Liberties Union filed three lawsuits against the District on Jan. 19 after allegations of false arrests and excessive use of pepper spray towards protesters during last year's inaugural parade.
The lawsuits claim that D.C. police violated the rights of peaceful demonstrators by indiscriminately arresting large groups of bystanders and drenching protesters with pepper spray through a chain-link fence.
"The police were clearly out of bounds," said, Fritz Mulhauser, staff attorney for the ACLU National Capital Area. "Pepper-spraying hundreds of people hardly seems necessary."
Some AU students, however, said they feel police officers can sometimes be justified in using force toward demonstrators.
"The police should use extreme discretion whenever it comes to using force upon any citizens," College Republican Treasurer Ryan Breslin said. "There are certainly cases in which police can use force beyond what is called for, but overall those cases are few and far between. Generally, the police do a great job of maintaining security and order while not trampling over the precious civil liberties our society holds dear."
Michael Palaia, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said pepper spray could be used if police feel threatened or if protesters engage in disorderly conduct.
"You have to think from the perspective of the police," Palaia said. "There is a delicate balancing act between protecting everyone's safety and respecting the right to protest."
However, according to College Democrats President Ashley Mushnick, who attended the inauguration last year, protesters were not posing a significant threat and many were tear-gassed while kneeling or standing peacefully.
Joanna Ison, ACLU-AU chapter president, said the lawsuits make it clear that protesters weren't posing a threat and that the amount of force used by police was excessive.
"It is upsetting to know that the D.C. police treated those involved this way," Ison said. "Every person has the right to express his or her opinions, and it is extremely important to protect that right for everyone."
The first lawsuit, Carr v. District of Columbia, is a class action suit filed on behalf of several dozen people arrested at a demonstration in Adams Morgan. District police arrested the entire group, including bystanders, and forced them to "kneel on the ice-covered ground for more than an hour" before detaining them overnight, according to the ACLU Web site.
The second case, Student v. District of Columbia, was filed on behalf of Barry Student, a reporter who was taken down, pepper-sprayed and arrested by police officers while marching.
The third case, Kaddura v. John Doe Officers, involves an altercation between four people and MPD officers near the Willard InterContinental Hotel. The plaintiffs claim they were standing peaceably behind a fence when they were sprayed by MPD officers using pepper spray hoses. Mulhauser said he hopes to challenge the MPD's use of pepper spray cannons, which have not been used in the past.
The incidents came on the heels of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the city in 2002, when police arrested hundreds of protesters without adequate warning. The District settled, awarding $50,000 to each of the seven plaintiffs and agreeing to reform arrest procedures at demonstrations.
"We hope [these lawsuits] will educate police and the public that police should obey the law," Mulhauser said. "The Constitution protects people against unreasonable force, and the message, as it always is from the ACLU, is to obey the Constitution"
