`Black Future Project' Founder Tentatively Settles Suit vs. Beverly Hills

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Black activist has tentatively settled his lawsuit against the city of  Beverly Hills in which he alleged his civil rights were violated during arrests while he led protests in the city following the 2020 in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

James Butler's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit originally alleged civil rights violations, battery, false imprisonment, unlawful arrest and intentional infliction of emotional arrest. Judge Colin Leis later dismissed Butler's claims for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiff's attorneys subsequently filed court papers notifying the judge of a "conditional" settlement in the case, but no terms were divulged.

The judge on Aug. 30 vacated the scheduled Sept. 16 scheduled start of trial.

Butler founded the Black Future Project, an organization that favors defunding the police and dismantling what he and his followers deem to be structural racism.

In June 2020, after Butler organized a protest in Beverly Hills, the City Council passed an emergency ordinance limiting residential assemblies to no more than 10 people between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., according to the suit.

In response, Butler and the Black Future Project organized a second protest in the city in late June 2020 with about 100 people who assembled on Santa Monica Boulevard after 9 p.m., and he and about 25 participants were arrested for allegedly being in violation of the emergency ordinance, the suit stated.

Butler spoke out publicly regarding the arrests, including what he believed were substandard conditions in the Beverly Hills city jail, the suit brought in September 2021 stated.

The city filed misdemeanor charges against Butler for taking part in the protest, but a judge later dismissed all allegations against him and the other protesters, the suit stated.

On July 23, 2020, Butler organized another demonstration that began when he spoke to his fellow protesters before they marched from Beverly Hills High School toward Santa Monica Boulevard, the suit stated. The march was peaceful and occurred prior to the 9 p.m. curfew, but Butler was apprehended by multiple officers who handcuffed him, the suit stated.

"The BHPD officers violently slammed Butler to the ground and pushed his face into the concrete roadway while placing a knee on the back of Butler's neck," the suit alleged.

Butler was then "violently slammed into a patrol car" and the BHPD attempted to justify his arrest by writing fabricated police reports to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in the hope that prosecutors would file felony charges for assault on a peace officer, the suit alleged.

However, after spending multiple hours in custody, Butler was released after the District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute, the suit stated.

In 1995, Beverly Hills was sued by a group of Black plaintiffs who alleged that BHPD officers stopped and harassed Black drivers without reasonable suspicion at a disproportionately high rate, according to the suit, which further states that the city later established a Human Relations Commission to deal with issues of racial profiling as part of a settlement in that litigation.