A local activist and radio reporter has sued the Antioch Police Department for allegedly using excessive force against him while he tried stopping officers for doing the same to someone else during a 2021 protest.
Frank Sterling says Antioch police officers tackled him and used a taser on him at what the suit describes as a small protest held by a half-dozen people against Tammany Brooks, Antioch’s former police chief, during his public retirement party on Sept. 17, 2021.
The suit specifically names the city of Antioch and 2021 police officers Brandon Bushby, Steven Miller, Geoffrey Morris, Brian Rose, Richard Angelini and community service officer Nicholas Gaitan as defendants.
The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and is the latest blow against the Antioch Police Department, which has been investigated by the FBI and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office for more than a year for alleged civil rights violations.
At least 45 officers — 16 in management positions — have been identified as being part of text message chains including racist and homophobic language and threats of violence, including at least one against Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe.
At least two members of Congress have called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the police department.
The department is also the subject of at least one other lawsuit involving six defendants, who say police unfairly targeted them with unnecessary force.
Sterling, who works for Berkeley-based public radio station KPFA, says in the suit that six protestors were “confronted by an aggressive group of police supporters, who were seemingly hell-bent on initiating a fight.”
The suit says a fight broke out, but police only targeted the anti-police protester, not the person fighting who supported police. Sterling was filming, then intervened to stop what he says were two officers’ use of excessive force on a detained, unarmed protester.
The suit says the six officers named in the suit took Sterling to the ground “and twisted his legs in a manner that seemed solely intended to cause harm.”
Sterling said he was complying as police “repeatedly yelled at him to stop fighting as a pretense to continue their assault on him.”
The suit says Sterling was being handcuffed on the ground when an officer “unnecessarily tased Mr. Sterling in the lower back and buttocks.”
The suit says a charge against Sterling for allegedly resisting arrest was later dismissed.
An Antioch police spokesperson did not return a message requesting comment on the suit Thursday afternoon.
They’ll be lawsuits against Antioch now till the cows come home….
DOG PILE!
Sounds like he got a lot less than he actually deserved altho I’m baffled at the police officer for only using his taser they wear a baton for situations just like that, USE IT!
Cry me a river. Mind your own business and you will be OK. Leaches always looking for a buck or a cause. It is getting old.
If there’s a right or something and you see an officer that is in need of help he will deputize you however if you stop an officer in his proceedings and his legal obligations to the community and the safe and protection of the community you’re going to be a combatant so really that activist hippie should be sued by that officer because as a citizen myself I believe that I should help police officers in time of need not kicking with her down because it’s assault on an officer it’s much worse than punching a mailman in the face which is also a federal offense I really think these activists are just like peeta they’re trying to harass officers to get violence done so they can be in the spotlight themselves and be a hypocrite for peace on Earth they’re pansies I feel bad for the police departments everywhere as a matter of fact I’m going back to school with my law degree and cooters to George streeter Ignacio valley high School ROP criminal justice teacher . Yes I didn’t go to the CHP academy on that field trip because I’ve already driven roadrunners and cudas from the ’70s and I must say like that one movie it takes a Mopar to catch a Mopar I don’t know I’m just going off just blabbing because it’s a good place to blab because I know the people who constantly read these things and come to this page website are intellectuals. Moreover I’m old school I was racing my grandparents my grandparents were world war II and North Korean and my cousins or their cousins were in Vietnam so it makes sense for me to be a constable on patrol and for those people who don’t know what cop means cop Constable on patrol no it doesn’t have anything to do with a copper badge they give you 😑😑 it’s kind of like you go into like a restaurant well Taco Bell really isn’t a restaurant and you know they can do better it’s like you want to talk to the manager but he’s so incoherent and destitute it’s like as a customer you shouldn’t have to micromanage their staff as a customer to get the perfection or not even perfect just a decent experience at their restaurant so it makes me believe that like these people they just don’t care I guess or maybe it’s something different I don’t know but I did watch a movie in high school called reefer madness and I’m guarantee you I’m going to make another reefer madness too with all the clips of people on so high and stuff that they can’t even get good customer service and everything goes down people’s shops and goes away and that’s the downfall society and towns
Holy wall of text with zero punctuation.
I have no idea what you just said, but you made my Friday morning! Burn one for me dude…
Any relation to Kamala?
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Berkeley?
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Activist?
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KPFA?
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An opportunist and insolent snowflake!
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I meant that once you smoke blunts yes marijuana helps cancer patients and Vicodin helps you with a broken tooth until it can be extracted but once you do that garbage on a daily basis you’re not really one of those individuals you can rely on now speaking of reliance let’s talk about the bus drivers of Contra Costa county next never mind stay frosty gents ladies keep your stick on the ice
Little long and rambling but I love the Red Green referance/saying at the end of the last comment. Not too many people remember that or actually watched the show here in CA. I’m not from here.
exactly and well put
Absolutely. Beat me to it.
Cop or not you hand someone a badge it just doesn’t automatically turn them into the perfect person. You see someone doing something wrong you take them down. Yes go Red Green funniest show ever watched. What that man could do with duct tape.