Today, the City Council will vote on whether to spend another $75,000 defending the city against that lawsuit. If approved, the total cost of defending against the lawsuit could reach $175,000.
The suit claims protesters were unlawfully detained, seized, tear-gassed and smoke-bombed simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. It was filed against the Dallas Police Department, its current and former police chiefs, the city of Dallas, Dallas County, the Dallas County sheriff, the Texas Department of Public Safety and its director. The suit also lists more than two dozen unnamed law enforcement officers with DPD, the sheriff’s department and DPS.
A DPD spokesperson said the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation. A spokesperson for the city said the same thing.
The suit seeks monetary damages and to prevent officers from future unconstitutional use of tear gas, flash bang grenades, pepper balls, rubber or sponge bullet KIPs and kettling techniques. Kettling is a controversial police crowd control tactic in which law enforcement will close off streets in order to trap protesters into a confined space.
The Jordans claim in their suit that they were subjected to excessive force by officers, which led to injuries, as well as violations of their First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Ray Jordan has been involved in the social justice movement in Dallas for some time now and also teaches a course on social justice and civil rights at Southern Methodist University. On May 29, 2020, Ray, Alexandria and Ray’s oldest son (who isn’t named in the suit) traveled to downtown Dallas to protest instances of police brutality, including the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. As they walked toward the demonstration at City Hall that day, the family saw a line of officers in riot gear, Ray Jordan told the Observer in an interview Tuesday. “We were never told to get off the street. We were never told to go back home,” Ray said. “They [the police] were basically silent.”
As they continued walking toward the protest, officers began firing smoke canisters and KIPs toward them and others. “My exact thoughts in that moment were ‘Oh my God. My country has declared war on me,’” Ray recalled."Oh my God. My country has declared war on me." – Ray Jordan, protester
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The Jordans ran from the officers, but this didn’t stop Ray’s oldest son, who has asthma, from having a severe asthma attack, at which point the family decided to go home.
However, Ray Jordan returned to downtown Dallas on June 1, 2020, with Alexandria and his youngest son, Joshua, where they met with other protesters outside DPD headquarters. Demonstrators there spoke, chanted, prayed and sang until they were notified there was a curfew and that they would have to leave the area.
That’s when the Jordans and other protesters left and headed to the Frank Crowley Courts Building, which was outside the curfew zone. There, they continued to participate in the protest. “It was a great feeling of community and solidarity,” Ray said.
As the night started coming to an end, the Jordans tried to return to their car in a garage at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, but they were unable to get to because DPD had blocked both the entrance and exit of the parking garage, according to Ray Jordan. A DPD officer told them he was given strict orders not to let anyone leave the garage until the protest was over. So, they decided to rejoin the group of protesters.
According to the suit, at this point protesters were being kettled up Riverfront Boulevard toward the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge where, eventually, some 674 individuals would be detained. “We were ushered toward the bridge,” Ray said.
Officers didn’t try to deter or disperse the protesters on the bridge, according to the suit. Instead, they prevented them from leaving by kettling them onto the bridge. When protesters reached the intersection with the roadway leading to the bridge, they found the westbound ramp onto the bridge was not blocked by police, unlike the other sides of the intersection. They were never instructed not to proceed onto the bridge. They were only told by officers to keep moving.
Eventually, on the bridge, the marchers would find themselves between two walls of officers in riot gear coming at them from either side, stopping the demonstration in its tracks. Ray Jordan said the throng raised their hands and chanted “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”
“There was no way to escape,” Ray Jordan said. “My mind said we’re being trapped.”
Suddenly, the lights went out on the bridge, causing confusion and agitation among protesters. Still surrounded, the people were instructed to leave, even though they had no way to do so. Several minutes passed before officers began firing into the crowd using pepper balls, flash-bangs, smoke bombs, tear gas and KIPs, causing the protesters to run for cover.
Ray was unable to see after the shots were fired and lost sight of his children in the crowd for several minutes. Officers continued to close in on the protesters and started to zip tie their hands, separating them by gender. It wasn’t until after he was reunited with his family later that night that Ray Jordan realized he had been hit in the leg by “less lethal ammunition” fired by the officers. Both Alexandria and Joshua had been hit too. The Jordans were then held unconstitutionally for over two hours before finally being released by law enforcement, according to the suit.
Ray said the scariest and most traumatizing part of the night was having to walk back through the wall of officers who had just shot at the protesters to evacuate the bridge. “Here I am trying to give my children a 15-second pep talk,” Ray said. “I'm telling them ‘Don’t reach for your phone. Don’t even scratch your nose because they could shoot you in the street and accuse you of reaching for a weapon. They could kill you in the street and be justified with no accountability.’”
They had to cross the bridge into Trinity Groves, away from their car. The family ended up having to go to a friend's house that night who called them an Uber to get back home. Ray Jordan couldn’t pick up his car until the following day.
The Jordan family’s lawsuit was filed in May 2022, and Ray Jordan said they have finished with the discovery phase. People are now being deposed as part of the suit, and he expects this to last the rest of the calendar year. No trial date has been set.
Since the protests in 2020, Ray Jordan said he hasn’t been comfortable in the presence of law enforcement. “I don’t trust them,” he said. “Even if I’m driving and I see a law enforcement officer, I have a damn near panic attack because I no longer feel safe in the presence of any law enforcement.”
However, these feelings haven’t stopped him from protesting. “It has not stopped me because I feel called to speak up for the right thing,” he said. “It doesn’t make me comfortable but it hasn’t stopped me.”
