Black Unity Lawsuit Against Springfield to Proceed to Trial

A federal judge has handed a win for Black Unity nearly six years after the events of July 29, 2020—otherwise known by many in the local activist community as “J29” or “Thurston”—and five years after the protest group’s lawsuit against the City of Springfield, Oregon and the Springfield Police Department was filed. 

Oregon Federal District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled that Black Unity’s lawsuit will proceed to trial while, simultaneously, rebuking the defendants in the process.  

Thurston 

On July 29, Black Unity led a protest in the Thurston neighborhood of Springfield that began at Jesse Maine Memorial Park, following the sighting of a skeleton hanging from a noose at a nearby home. 

The police formed a barricade not long after the march began and then violently grabbed several protesters—including Black Unity leadership—to the police-side for arrest. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, what was waiting for the march back at the park was even more violent. What people online watching livestreams knew that people on the ground didn’t was that the well-known violent far-right extremists, including Geena Davis (then Geena Hager or Geena Shipman), were not only driving around, hunting for “Antifa” with paintball guns, but were aided by SPD Sergeant Pete Kirkpatrick, who told them exactly where the police were going to barricade them. 

The far-right counter-protesters attacked the marchers as they returned to the park. One pink-clad “Wall of Mom” was violently pushed to the ground by Davis.

Davis was arrested later that night and charged with 4th Degree Assault. She pleaded no contest and a fine was issued. The case would not be closed until December 2025, when she finally paid. 

An independent review later revealed just how unprepared the department was to respond to protests.

Moving Forward

Judge Aiken did not hold back. Not only will all of the plaintiffs’ claims go to trial but she bluntly refuted the defendants’ overarching claim of qualified immunity. 

In this case, the claim was denied because of First Amendment violations. 

“It is clearly established that First Amendment protections ‘are nowhere stronger’ than in streets and parks because they are traditional public fora,” the judge wrote. 

According to the Civil Liberties Defense Center, the following claims will proceed to trial:

“Springfield violated plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by imposing prior restraints on their right to protest – by blockading the path of the march; declaring the march an unlawful assembly; and diverting protestors into a gauntlet of violent racist far-right extremists. All of these actions were illegal and intended to chill anti-racist activists’ rights to protest and free speech.

Springfield police repeatedly used excessive force against several activists, including making closed-fist punches to the head, and shoving videographers against whom no force was appropriate.

Springfield and its employees violated Oregon’s anti-surveillance statute by running plaintiffs’ license plates, using undercover agents to monitor lawful political activity, and creating a database on local activists, all in violation of their federal due process rights.

Springfield police retaliated against Black Unity and anti-racist activists for exercising their First Amendment rights.

Springfield engaged in a race-based conspiracy to deprive Black Unity and anti-racist activists of their civil rights, in violation of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) Act.”

The “elephant in the room” can’t be ignored, though. The very Act that the city and its police department are accused of violating, the Ku Klux Klan Act, is the very same one currently being used against four Black individuals—activists Trahern Jeen Crews, Jamael Lydell Lundy with journalists Georgia Ford and Don Lemon—for being at a protest inside a Minneapolis church.