A Presbyterian minister hit by ICE projectiles during a protest near a Chicago-area immigrant center has joined a lawsuit against the federal government, alleging severe suppression of free speech.
Rev. David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, is one of the plaintiffs in a 52-page lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division. Other plaintiffs are journalism organizations and outlets, individual journalists, clergy members, and protesters, claiming they were targeted with ICE rubber bullets or tear gas in unprovoked attacks.
A video of the alleged incident involving Black on Sept. 19, recorded by a fellow protester, went viral on Wednesday. It showed the pastor in his clerical attire, with outstretched arms, praying outside Broadview’s chain-link fence, addressing three men in fatigues on the rooftop. He called for the masked agents to join in prayer for their own well-being, he explained later.
“I called them to repentance,” Black recounted to Religion News Service. “I essentially offered an altar call, urging them to embrace salvation and become part of the forthcoming kingdom.”
The agents answered by showering him with chemical bullets, knocking him to his knees, he said.
“Without any prior warning or request for dispersion, ICE officers opened fire on me and others,” Black stated in the ACLU’s release. “I was struck seven times on my arms, face, and torso with exploding chemical pellets. It was evident they targeted my head, which was hit twice.”
While a protester doused his eyes with water, “We could hear them laughing,” Black told RNS.
The ACLU is petitioning for an emergency restraining order to halt the “illegal and brutal oppression” of First Amendment rights by the government, they declared. According to the ACLU, the Broadview facility has historically been a venue for peaceful protests for many years, including this summer, following the Trump administration’s deployment of heavily armed agents as part of an operation referred to as “Operation Midway Blitz.”
“The Trump Administration has sent federal officials and agents to brutally suppress free speech at the site through intentional and escalating violence, including the dangerous and indiscriminate use of near-lethal weapons such as tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper-balls, flash grenades, and other unwarranted and disproportionate tactics,” the ACLU said in a statement.
“Never in modern times has the federal government undermined bedrock constitutional protections on this scale, or usurped states’ police power by directing federal agents to carry out an illegal mission against the people for the government’s own benefit,” the ACLU complaint stated.
On Wednesday, Texas National Guard troops arrived in Chicago.
With News Wire Services
