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Antioch Police Department mired in racism allegations — first in text messages, now in a brutality lawsuit



After current revelations of racist textual content messages involving greater than a dozen of its officers, the Antioch Police Division is now the topic of a lawsuit alleging race-based brutality.

Plaintiffs Juan Laspada and Rebecca Rodriguez accuse a gaggle of unnamed officers of extreme use of drive and racial profiling in a lawsuit filed final week in opposition to the town of Antioch and the officers, in line with the grievance.

The lawsuit alleges that on Feb. 25, 2022, Laspada and his fianceé, Rodriguez, had been awaiting an Uber car outdoors a good friend’s residence when police confronted them.

With out informing Laspada that he was being detained or arrested, the grievance alleges, officers “threw him to floor, positioned him in a inclined place on his abdomen, and commenced to punch the plaintiff a number of occasions in his face, physique and ear space and issuing knee strikes to the plaintiff’s physique.”

A video of the encounter posted on Twitter exhibits a scuffle on the sidewalk, with an officer pushing Rodriguez to the bottom after which punching Laspada, who’s being restrained on the bottom.

Officers then allegedly searched Laspada’s bag earlier than handcuffing the couple. Laspada was then transported to a hospital, whereas Rordiguez was taken to the police station. Each had been finally launched with none costs filed in opposition to them.

The grievance alleges that the couple, “who’re each Latinx, had been racially profiled, resulting in their illegal detention and arrest.”

The go well with claims that their 4th Modification rights — these prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures — had been infringed upon, in addition to 14th Modification rights defending in opposition to racial discrimination.

In help of the discrimination declare, the lawsuit particulars the racist texting scandal that has not too long ago engulfed the town police division, which is the topic of an investigation by the Contra Costa County district legal professional’s workplace and the FBI. A report launched earlier this month particulars 14 officers’ communications that embrace 12 messages likening Black folks to gorillas in addition to dozens of situations of the N-word.

Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who’s Black, was additionally the goal of racist threats within the texts, which had been first reported by the Mercury Information after which Contra Costa Information. Antioch’s inhabitants is about 24% Black, in line with 2020 census information.

It’s unclear whether or not the officers concerned within the brutality case, nonetheless unnamed, had been additionally implicated within the investigation into the racist messages.

These texts prompted an uproar in Antioch, resulting in a raucous Metropolis Council assembly during which Thorpe engaged in a heated change with a commenter whom he accused of utilizing “canine whistle” racist language.

At a subsequent assembly, the Metropolis Council voted unanimously to audit the Police Division’s Inner Affairs Unit, its hiring and promotional practices, and the present tradition contained in the division.

An unknown variety of circumstances that relied on testimony by the officers concerned within the texting scandal may additionally be up for overview and attainable dismissal or re-sentencing.



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