The American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia is suing Washington, D.C., police over how they handled protesters on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The complaint alleges that the Metropolitan Police Department fired pepper spray and stun grenades at demonstrators and observers “frequently without warning or justification.” In addition, it says “police held detainees for hours without food, water, or access to toilets; handcuffed detainees so tightly as to cause injury or loss of feeling; and subjected some detainees to manual rectal probing.” In response, the police department provided BuzzFeed News and other outlets with a statement saying “all instances of use of force by officers and allegations of misconduct will be fully investigated.”
The lawsuit comes as the government is pursuing charges of rioting, conspiracy, and property destruction against more than 200 people arrested on Inauguration Day, BuzzFeed News reports. Violent protesters caused more than $100,000 worth in damage and injured six officers, police say. The four people represented by the ACLU claim did nothing illegal that day; not all of them were among the arrested, BuzzFeed News reports.
