A coalition of #BlackLivesMatter organizations, legal workers and journalists aligned with a consortium of civil-rights lawyers to file a federal civil-rights lawsuit seeking to restrain President Trump's promised surge of federal law-enforcement agents in Chicago.
The suit seeks injunctive and declaratory relief from the federal court to stop the Trump administration from sending federal agents "to intimidate and falsely arrest civilians who are exercising their constitutional right to speak and to assemble." It also seeks an injunction against the federal policy of arresting civilians preemptively and without probable cause.
Black Lives Matter Chicago, Black Abolitionist Network, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, Good Kids/Mad City, #LetUsBreathe Collective, South Siders Organized for Unity and Liberation, National Lawyers Guild Chicago and First Defense Legal Aid filed the suit.
Activists at a Juy 23 press conference said that huge expenditures of local and federal resources on police agencies rather than housing, healthcare and education are the driving force behind violence in already over-policed cities like Chicago, and that more police will only worsen the problem.