The family of Michael Brown filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Ferguson on Thursday, seeking unspecified damages and police reforms after the 18-year-old's killing by a white policeman prompted a national debate on law enforcement and race. The civil lawsuit filed in St. Louis County, Missouri, names the city of Ferguson, former Police Chief Thomas Jackson and former police officer Darren Wilson as defendants. The lawsuit seeks $75,000 in compensation, as well as unspecified punitive damages, and calls for a court order prohibiting the use of police techniques "that demean, disregard, or underserve its African-American population.". The shooting last August sparked protests and a national movement questioning police use of deadly force, especially against minorities in cities around the country. The lawsuit alleges that former officer Wilson destroyed evidence after he shot Michael on the street of Ferguson saying he washed blood off his hands and cleared and bagged the gun used in the shooting. "We expect to put on evidence that you never heard about before, that you have never seen," Anthony Gray, one of the lawyers for Brown's family, said at a news conference on Thursday to discuss the lawsuit (which you can read it its entirety, below). A grand jury not to bring criminal charges against Wilson. The U.S. Department of Justice later cleared the police officer of any civil rights violations. While Michael was unarmed, some witnesses said he had charged the officer in the incident. The civil lawsuit listed incidents of alleged unlawful stops and arrests of blacks in Ferguson. It asked for the court to assign a monitor to the city's police force for five years or until "the city of Ferguson has fully and effectually trained all of its police officers on the constitutional requirements of the use of deadly force."
Here's the lawsuit:
source: Reuters
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