"Community Activists" Sue Scott Wilson and City of BR

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BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Three people have filed a lawsuit against Baton Rouge Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wilson and the City of Baton Rouge for a May 10, 207, incident in which Wilson allegedly ordered police to remove them and three other people from the Metro Council chambers during the public comment period of a council meeting.

The lawsuit alleges that Wilson suppressed the plaintiffs’ first amendment rights of free speech by removing them from the council chambers. It also alleges that Wilson and the City of Baton Rouge have a “long history” of suppressing the voices of black citizens.

The plaintiffs are listed as Michael McClanahan, who is President of the East Baton Rouge NACCP, Gary Chambers, who is Editor-In-Chief of the Rouge Collection, and Eugene Collins, who is Director of Prevention for the HIV/AIDS Alliance for Region Two, Inc. are listed as the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

McClanahan, Chambers, and Collins began to speak about the Alton Sterling shooting during the public comment period for unrelated agenda items and were removed in less than a minute from the time they began speaking. Chambers was removed after eight seconds and Collins was removed after two and a half seconds, the lawsuit says. Wilson allegedly removed three other people were from the meeting for speaking about the Alton Sterling case even though they were speaking on topic about the agenda item.

The suit also claims Wilson removed a man during the public comment period of a June 28, 2017, council meeting immediately after the man mentioned the Alton Sterling case. The man was allegedly at the podium for less than five seconds before he was removed.

The lawsuit also alleges that “Scott Wilson Has Consistently Allowed People to Speak Far Off Agenda Topics – So Long As They Don’t Mention Alton Sterling, Criticize Chief Dabadie, or Criticize Scott Wilson.”

The attorney who filed the suit claims that McClanahan, Chambers, and Collins still had the right to speak during the public comment period even though they were speaking off topic. The plaintiffs seek the court to declare that Wilson acted inappropriately by ordering them out of the council chambers, and to recuperate attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses from the lawsuit.

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