{"id":63618,"date":"2026-03-18T13:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63618"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:07:19","slug":"ca8-non-lethal-force-during-george-floyd-curfew-violating-disturbance-was-reasonable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63618","title":{"rendered":"CA8: Non-lethal force during George Floyd curfew violating disturbance was reasonable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the George Floyd riots, the day after a Minneapolis\u2019s third police precinct was burned down, there was another protest around the fifth precinct in violation of a city-wide curfew. Plaintiff was shot in the head with a nonlethal projectile in a group of protestors. It was not unreasonable force under the circumstances. Bartz v. City of Minneapolis<\/a>, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 7905 (8th Cir. Mar. 18, 2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2026 Here, although some of the protesters were protesting peacefully, the situation confronting Officer Hickey was a far cry from \u201ca peaceful scene interrupted by rubber bullets and tear-gas.\u201d Quraishi v. St. Charles County, 986 F.3d 831, 836 (8th Cir. 2021) (concluding an officer did not have arguable probable cause to use tear-gas based on a belief that those reporting on a protest were committing crimes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bartz and other protesters were defying a citywide curfew during a declared peacetime emergency while parts of the city burned and rioters caused violence and destruction. Viewing the video footage in the record of that night, the circumstances resemble a war-torn city more than a peaceful protest. See Brown, 40 F.4th at 897, 902\u201303 (relying on video evidence submitted by officers in support of their motion for summary judgment depicting the circumstances at issue). Just the night before, rioters overtook and burned down the police department\u2019s Third Precinct, which Officer Hickey protected until the officers\u2019 emergency evacuation. See Barnes, 145 S. Ct. at 1358 (explaining that \u201cearlier facts and circumstances may bear on how a reasonable officer would have understood and responded to later ones\u201d). As explained by the curfew announcement issued by the Governor, \u201c[d]estructive and dangerous activity\u201d had continued since the declaration of a peacetime emergency and the State needed to \u201crestore peace and safety immediately.\u201d And as the Mayor\u2019s curfew announcement stated, \u201cpublic safety personnel, residents, and visitors\u201d were \u201cat risk of significant injury and death and the potential for further civil unrest or disturbance\u201d was so likely that \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d needed to be taken \u201cto protect the public health, safety, and welfare.\u201d From the perspective of a reasonable officer on the ground, this night was taking shape like the night before. The circumstances revealed the \u201cseverity of the security problem at issue\u201d and the \u201cthreat reasonably perceived by the officer.\u201d Kingsley, 576 U.S. at 397. And yet Bartz violated curfew and ventured into the turmoil while police sought to protect the city and the public. Even if well-intentioned, during this chaos, Bartz and the other protesters posed a threat to the officers and the public safety. Graham, 490 U.S. at 396 (explaining the test of reasonableness requires \u201ccareful attention to the \u2026 immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the George Floyd riots, the day after a Minneapolis\u2019s third police precinct was burned down, there was another protest around the fifth precinct in violation of a city-wide curfew. Plaintiff was shot in the head with a nonlethal projectile … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excessive-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63630,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63618\/revisions\/63630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}