A Sacramento Lawsuit and the Fight for Police Accountability
In the latest episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald sits down with civil rights attorney Marissa Hatton of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and community activist Meg White to examine a pivotal case against the Sacramento Police Department. The lawsuit, stemming from police violence during the George Floyd protests in 2020, sheds light on the city’s response to racial justice demonstrations and the long road toward accountability and reform. Despite a monetary settlement, plaintiffs and advocates remain deeply frustrated by the court’s refusal to impose lasting injunctive relief.
Hatton recounts the harrowing details behind the legal battle, which challenged the Sacramento Police Department not only for excessive force—including the widespread use of chemical agents and rubber bullets—but also for viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment. While the court ruled that the department had violated the Fourth Amendment by using unlawful force and failing to train or discipline its officers, it stopped short of mandating policy changes to prevent future misconduct. For many, including the plaintiffs, that decision leaves them vulnerable to repeat abuse.
Meg White, one of six plaintiffs, offers an unflinching firsthand account of what it felt like to be maced, beaten, and traumatized during what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. White’s experience—shared by hundreds of demonstrators—illustrates a pattern of police escalation and indiscriminate retaliation. The contrast between the violent crackdown on racial justice protesters and the relative restraint shown to Stop the Steal demonstrators is a key element of the case, revealing a disturbing double standard in how law enforcement responds to dissenting voices.
Though the court acknowledged a pattern and practice of unconstitutional conduct, the ruling left systemic change off the table—deepening public distrust. As the conversation turns toward ongoing protests and growing authoritarianism across the country, this episode is both a sobering postmortem of one city’s failures and a warning about what happens when legal victories don’t translate into institutional reform. Hatton and White make one thing painfully clear: without accountability and structural change, the injustice will repeat itself.
