Donald Trump Sued For Battery, Starting A ‘Riot’ At Kentucky Rally
After weeks of media coverage of the violence at Trump rallies, Donald Trump has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by three individuals who claim they were attacked, subjected to racial slurs, and otherwise mistreated by Trump supporters.
The Donald Trump lawsuit alleges that the New York billionaire encourages an “atmosphere of violence” at his rallies, and due to his violent rhetoric, Trump bears some of the blame for the alleged verbal and physical attacks endured by the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The lawsuit against Donald Trump was filed Thursday by three protesters who were present at a Trump rally on March 1 in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Each time he said ‘get them out,’ Trump intended for his supporters to use unwanted, harmful, physical violence to remove the protesters,” reads the lawsuit filed against Donald Trump yesterday.
3 protestors filed lawsuit v Trump & 2 supporters for common law assault, battery, and negligence at Kentucky rally pic.twitter.com/qZLwCwnR4y
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) April 1, 2016
Violence at Trump rallies has become common in recent months. Although which side is to blame is a matter of dispute, anti-Trump protesters claim they have met with physical threats, violence, and often racially motivated verbal abuse while protesting the Republican front-runner. In the past few months, at least two separate incidents at Trump rallies have seen protesters claim they suffered unprovoked physical violence at the hands of Donald Trump supporters. Many of these incidents were caught on video, as the Inquisitr has reported previously.
Donald Trump’s supporters dispute these allegations, claiming that the protesters are often far from innocent. Trump himself alleges that the protesters, or “disruptors” as he calls them, are often the first ones to incite violent behavior.
In the lawsuit filed against Donald Trump yesterday, the plaintiffs claim that Trump is to blame; not because he directed the crowd to assault or abuse the protesters, but because his rhetoric and previous statements have created an atmosphere where violence is permissible behavior, particularly when used against individuals who do not support Donald Trump or the Trump message.
“It says a lot about Donald Trump. We haven’t seen anything like this at any other candidates’ rallies. It says a lot about the speech that Donald Trump is espousing that fosters and creates a perfect environment for this kind of violence,” says Henry Brousseau, one of the three plaintiffs suing Donald Trump for the abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of Trump supporters.
Also named in the suit is a white nationalist Trump supporter who reportedly used racial slurs against the protesters, and a Korean war veteran who is accused of assaulting the plaintiffs as they tried to exit the Trump event. All three plaintiffs in the Trump lawsuit have also filed police reports, and they are actively pursuing criminal charges against the men allegedly responsible for the verbal and physical abuse they claim they endured while protesting Donald Trump at the Kentucky rally earlier this month.
One man named in the suit, Matthew Heimbach, is a fervent Trump supporter who heads a white nationalist youth network. He is alleged to be seen on a video shoving two of the female plaintiffs while they tried to safely exit the Trump rally. The two plaintiffs who were allegedly assaulted by Heimbach, Kashiya Nwanguma and Molly Shah, claim that they were referred to with racist and sexist epithets by Heimbach and another Trump supporter as they attempted to exit Trump rally.
“I was absolutely surprised that I was assaulted just because I was completely nonviolent, I thought if I behaved myself and I acted within my rights, people would do the same,” said Kashiya Nwanguma, speaking to the Courier-Journal.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
