One of the protesters who was demonstrating in D.C. on a night when the military was captured on video flying helicopters closely over crowds is seeking financial compensation for physical and mental injuries.
In an administrative claim filed with the D.C. National Guard, the American Civil Liberties Union said the actions on the night of June 1 “caused harmful or offensive bodily contact, and inflicted severe emotional distress through extreme and outrageous conduct” to their client.
Social media videos posted that evening reveal at least two military choppers hovering over parts of D.C., where hours earlier, authorities cleared an area near Lafayette Square.
The complaint from the ACLU of D.C. said 23-year old Dzhuliya Dashtamirova, who traveled to D.C from Baltimore that day to demonstrate, suffered injuries to her body and face when one of the aircrafts kicked up debris over 7th Street near Gallery Place. She experienced eye irritation for days following the incident.
“My eyes and skin were burning from all the debris flying everywhere. I couldn’t see anything,” Dashtamirova said in a separate written statement from the ACLU. “I was afraid that troops would storm out of the helicopter and tear gas me or shoot me with rubber bullets.”
For several weeks afterward, the ACLU alleges Dashtamirova also “lost sleep, struggled to concentrate at work, and spent hours trying to process the incident and grapple with her fears that it would occur again.”
“This was a dangerous, unprecedented show of force against American civilians exercising their First Amendment rights,” said ACLU attorney Michael Perloff. “The streets of D.C. are not a war zone, and protesters are not the enemy. Our government should stop treating them that way.”
The D.C. National Guard was already investigating the evening in question, during which a Lakota with a red cross medical evacuation insignia and a Blackhawk began to circle closely over the demonstrators between Gallery Place and Judiciary Square.
The claim is seeking $200,000 in damages under the Federal Tort Reform Claims Act.
The D.C. National Guard hasn’t returned WTOP’s request for comment.
WTOP has not immediately heard back from the D.C. National Guard for comment on the claim.
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