By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
GREEN BAY – An attorney representing Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters filed a federal class action suit Dec. 9 against the City of Green Bay related to his clients being arrested in early June for violating the city’s emergency curfew.
Attorney David Hassel alleges the city selectively enforced the curfew based on the content of protected speech critical of police.
“The city knowingly or recklessly used the curfew to target only BLM protesters precisely because of the content of their message,” he said.
The protests were held in response to George Floyd’s death May 25 when he was in police custody in Minneapolis.
On the night of May 31, as peaceful protesting concluded in downtown Green Bay, Hassel said “certain actors unrelated to the peaceful protesters committed crimes of vandalism and theft in the same vicinity of the protests.”
“Those crimes were immediately and unfairly attributed to BLM,” he said.
Hassel also claims the curfew was unconstitutionally vague and selectively enforced based on race.
“Particularly offensive here, is the use of deliberately vague ordinances against people complaining about the history of injustice towards Black people,” he said. “The laws struck down in developing the void for vagueness doctrine were primarily the vagrancy statutes used in the Jim Crow South (and elsewhere) to intimidate and subjugate black people. It is precisely this history and the lack of change people are protesting.”
Hassel said Green Bay enacted a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in early June “to prohibit anybody from being out in public streets” during curfew hours, but the only people arrested for violating it were protesters.
“The city thus gave the police department unfettered discretion to decide what, in fact, violated the curfew,” he said.
“I’m disappointed that the city made us file a federal lawsuit to get them to take this seriously,” Hassel said. “All we have wanted since we started working on this in June was for the city to recognize what it did in using the police to shut down protests about the need for change in how the police interact with our black and non-white communities.”
The suit is specifically filed on behalf of two plaintiffs – Gerardo Rodriguez, an Allouez resident, and Manali Oleksy, a Green Bay resident – and makes reference to “all others similarly situated.”
The suit states Oleksy, who is of indigenous decent, was engaged in a lawful BLM protest the night of June 1 when police arrived at 9 p.m. and told her and other protesters to leave because of the curfew.
When she did not immediately comply, according to the suit, she was arrested and thrown in the back of a van by a group of officers in tactical gear, with violating the curfew being the only reason provided for her arrest.
On June 4, the suit states Rodriguez, who is Hispanic, “knelt in the grass across the street from the police department in protest of police generally and their recent activity silencing protesters” when police “approached him, informed him he was violating the curfew and told him to leave.”
The suit further states when he questioned why and refused to leave, he was arrested for violating the curfew.
In addition to seeking a court order declaring the curfew unconstitutional, the suit also seeks an injunction barring further prosecution under the curfew and orders reversing all judgments of conviction and pleas of guilty or no contest, as well as expunging arrest records.
Other relief sought includes awarding damages for the plaintiffs, prejudgment interest and attorney fees with a jury trial sought on all triable issues.
Hassel said the city will need to file an answer to the suit in 60 days.
When contacted for comment, Deputy City Attorney Joanne Bungert said the city does not comment on pending litigation.