Fred Hampton Jr., a leader in the movement against police terror, filed suit against the City of Oakland in August, 2013, a little more than six months after Oakland Police stopped him and his companions at Target in Emeryville on bogus charges of stealing a cell phone and held them for three hours, injuring one of Hampton’s associates.
Hampton, who lives in Chicago, has spoken out against state oppressions many times in Oakland, including recently against the Domain Awareness Center, testifying to the City Council. He addressed the 2nd Anniversary Party of Occupy Oakland remotely on October 10th, 2013, spoke out against William “Stop & Frisk” Bratton, and has supported the Blueford family multiple times at rallies and events in its quest for Justice 4 Alan Blueford.
As reported by Courthouse News:
Hampton claims police stopped him and his co-plaintiffs near the Oakland-Emeryville border at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 21, and held them at gunpoint in a Target parking lot.
“The police claim that the reason they stopped the plaintiffs was that a stolen cell phone had been tracked to that location. However, the police detained the plaintiffs in a crowded parking lot and did not make any attempt to determine whether the plaintiffs had a stolen cell phone in their possession.”
The police held them for 3 hours, and roughed up Dawn Scott, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs say they “were stopped and harassed by the police without probable or reasonable cause in retaliation for their political activism.”
They claim the “harassment was organized by high ranking members of the OPD and EPD.”
They seek an injunction, medical expenses, and compensatory and punitive damages for civil rights violations, battery by a police officer, false imprisonment and negligence.
They are represented by Dan Siegel with Siegel & Yee.
Note: This article originally reported the suit as being filed on March 7th, 2014, which was an error on the part of the author. The text has been corrected.
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