Kentucky Rep. Attica Scott, her daughter Ashanti Scott and Lousiville activist Shameka Parrish-Wright have filed a lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers who arrested them last year during a Breonna Taylor protest. They said that their constitutional rights were violated during the night of the arrests, which took place on September 24, 2020.
The women were reportedly arrested before Mayor Greg Fischer’s 9 p.m. curfew went into effect. The curfew excluded residents who were going to work, church or seeking medical treatment. That night, Scott, her daughter and Parrish-Wright were arrested while they were walking with other people to a local church that offered shelter to protesters.
Police claimed that the people the women were walking with broke windows and threw flares into a nearby library. Scott, her daughter and Parrish-Wright were charged with first-degree rioting — a Class D felony — failure to disperse and unlawful assembly.
“I’m joining this lawsuit against LMPD because we deserve to live free from over-policing, racial profiling and police violence,” Scott said in a statement. “My daughter and I were literally walking while Black when police targeted us for arrest prior to the unnecessary curfew that had been implemented — a curfew that was inequitably enforced and only used against those of us exercising our first amendment rights.”
Last October, the felony rioting charges against the women were dismissed. A month later, the remaining misdemeanor charges against Scott and the other protesters were dropped. The lawsuit was filed against LMPD Officer Alex Eades, former LMPD Interim Chief Robert Schroeder and another unnamed officer.
“We must stop LMPD from using the judicial process to further bully us and our non-violent protest,” Parrish-Wright said. “I believe in law and justice and they must be applied equally. LMPD continues to fail our community. They have too many officers who do not follow standard operating procedures and who make our neighborhoods unsafe.”