After the recent revelations of racist messages Involving more than a dozen of its officers, the Antioch Police Department is now the subject of a lawsuit alleging atrocities based on race.
Plaintiffs Juan Laspada and Rebecca Rodriguez allege an unnamed group of officers used excessive force and racism in a lawsuit filed last week against the city of Antioch and the officers, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that on February 25, 2022, Laspada and his fiancée, Rodriguez, were waiting for an Uber outside a friend’s residence when police came to confront them.
The complaint alleges that without informing Laspada that he was being held or arrested, officers “threw him to the ground, placed him on his stomach, and began punching the plaintiff several times in the face, body, and body.” his body and ear area and issued a knee blow to the plaintiff’s body.
Video of the meeting posted on Twitter shows a scuffle on the sidewalk, with an officer pushing Rodriguez to the ground and then punching Laspada, who was restrained on the ground.
Police are then said to have searched Laspada’s bag before handcuffing the couple. Laspada was then transferred to the hospital, while Rordiguez was taken to the police station. Both were eventually released without any charges against them.
The complaint alleges that the couple, “both Latino, were subjected to racial discrimination, which resulted in their unlawful detention and arrest.”
The lawsuit claims that their 4th Amendment rights — those that prohibit unreasonable search and seizure — have been violated, as well as their 14th Amendment rights that protect against racial discrimination. .
In support of the discrimination complaint, the lawsuit details racist texting scandal recently engulfed the city police department, is the subject of an inquiry by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office and the FBI. A report released earlier this month detailed the communications of 14 officers including 12 messages that likened Blacks to gorillas as well as dozens of instances of the N-word.
Mayor Lamar Thorpe, Black people, also the target of racist threats in the texts, were first reported by Mercury Newsletter And after that Contra Costa Newsletter. Antioch’s population is about 24% black, according to 2020 census data.
It is unclear whether the officers involved in the brutal case, which has not yet been named, were involved in the investigation into the racist messages.
Those texts caused an uproar in Antioch, leading to a rowdy City Council meeting in which Thorpe engaged in a heated exchange with a commentator he accused of using language racist “dog whistle”.
At a later meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to examine the Police Department’s Home Affairs Unit, its recruitment and promotion practices, and the existing culture within the department.
An unspecified number of cases based on the testimony of officials involved in the messaging scandal may also be reviewed and may result in dismissal or re-sentence.
