Lawsuit Accuses DC Police Of Illegally Using Chemicals, Munitions

WASHINGTON, DC — The ACLU of the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of two photojournalists against the District of Columbia and eight unnamed D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers for using chemical irritants and stun grenades on them in August 2020.

A month prior to the MPD’s use of the chemicals and stun grenades, the D.C. Council had banned the use of the weapons at demonstrations in the city, according to the lawsuit.

“MPD flagrantly used tactics that D.C. laws explicitly ban,” Megan Yan, attorney for the ACLU of the District of Columbia, said in a statement Thursday. “It’s especially ironic that MPD responded to these demonstrations with the kind of violence that the protestors were protesting.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is seeking damages for photojournalists Oyoma Asinor and Bryan Dozier in an amount to be determined by a jury. Among its claims, the lawsuit charges that MPD violated D.C.’s First Amendment Assemblies Act, which prohibits the use of chemical irritants and less-lethal projectiles at First Amendment assemblies.

Over the past 20 years, the D.C. government has been forced to pay out millions of dollars to settle lawsuits over alleged misconduct by the city's police force.

On Aug. 29, 2020, Asinor and Dozier were covering protests against police brutality at the intersection of 16th Street NW and H Street NW, near Black Lives Matter Plaza in downtown D.C. After 11 p.m., D.C. police officers began deploying chemical irritants against the demonstrators and journalists without warning or provocation.

Dozier was hit by irritants, causing him to have trouble breathing. He tried to escape the irritants, but another officer forced Dozier to move back into the cloud of gas. An MPD officer in full riot gear deployed chemical irritants against Asinor as he was retreating, causing his skin to burn. Additionally, officers fired multiple stun grenades, terrifying and disorienting Asinor and Dozier, according to the lawsuit.

The next evening, on Aug. 30, 2020, Asinor returned to BLM Plaza to cover another demonstration, and officers again deployed munitions such as stun grenades and chemical irritants against a crowd of protesters. The irritants caused Asinor’s skin to burn and his eyes to water. Another officer then detained him, even though he told the officer he was a member of the news media and had a camera he had been using to take pictures, according to the lawsuit.

Although Asinor did not resist, the officer shoved Asinor face-down on the ground and handcuffed him. He was detained overnight before being released without charges. Asinor’s belongings were confiscated from him and several of those items, including his phone and camera, were not returned to him until Aug. 3, 2021.

According to the ACLU of D.C., the police officers’ attacks on both nights caused severe psychological distress to both Asinor and Dozier, who continue to feel the effects. They report anxiety attacks, feeling jittery around loud noises, and for Asinor, constant fear that he may be being surveilled by police after being arrested, according to the lawsuit.

“The fact that MPD attacked, arrested me, and then held my camera for nearly a year for no reason sends a chilling message to everyone of what is at risk when they attend these demonstrations,” Asinor said in a statement.

Dozier’s work has been published by the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Financial Times and The Guardian. Asinor’s work has been published by the Washington Post.

In April, the D.C. government agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle two lawsuits that alleged D.C. police officers unlawfully detained more than 200 protesters in mass arrests the day of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration in January 2017.

Mass arrests in 2000 and 2002 led to lawsuit settlements against the MPD in the millions of dollars.

RELATED: DC Settles Trump Inauguration Day Protest Lawsuits For $1.6M