The ACLU of Louisiana and other groups have filed suit against the Baton Rouge Police Department on Wednesday. The suit claims police and law enforcement violated the First Amendment rights of the crowd who was peacefully protesting. 

The suit alleges that officers used excessive force, wrongful arrests, and both physical and verbal abuse to break up the protests.

The groups have reportedly collected eyewitness accounts that describe the actions of police in full riot gear with assault rifles. The reports claim that the police lunged and grabbed at protesters, throwing them down to the ground.

"[The police response] made me afraid to protest. Seeing the way the police were manhandling folks caused me to hide, scream out of fear, and finally flee for my safety. I had to run. A peaceful demonstration should never be like that," expressed Crystal Williams, local resident and organizer with North Baton Rouge Matters. "I feel like speech is my most powerful tool to ensure my community and my family are safe. But now I feel totally silenced."

The president of the National Lawyers Guild, Alison Renee McCrary released a statement saying she saw "assault weapons pointed at [the protestors] with fingers on the triggers, some dragged across the cement, their clothes ripped off of them."

"What I saw happening was an immediate threat to life," McCrary said in the release. "My and other demonstrators' speech was chilled because of this event."

"The police didn't do their job in Baton Rouge, again. They are bound to protect us from harm, to keep us safe, to do everything possible before throwing someone to the ground or pulling the trigger. Yet Alton Sterling is on the long list of Black people killed needlessly by our nation's police, and protests in his honor have turned into circuses of violence where the First Amendment is tossed aside," said ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie Esman. "We can't bring Alton Sterling back but at minimum, the police can stop blocking our right to protest in his name."

The governor of Louisiana defended the police.