A protester who was removed from a Golden State Warriors championship game for supporting abortion rights protests has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the city of San Francisco, alleging that a paramedic, acting on the orders of a police sergeant, gave her a sedative injection while she was handcuffed.
At Chase Center on June 13, during Game 5 of the Warriors vs. Boston Celtics series, Kareim McKnight and a friend, Amanda Piasecki, came onto the main floor and hoisted a banner that read: “reversing Roe? No way!” In May, a draught of the Roe v. Wade ruling by the US Supreme Court was made public.
Security personnel were seen pulling McKnight and Piasecki out of the venue in a video shared by McKnight’s lawyer, John Burris, who filed the case this week.
Once they were outside, a San Francisco Police sergeant allegedly threatened to sedate McKnight, according to McKnight.
She claimed that after being carried outside, choked, and hogtied, an SFPD sergeant approached her and threatened to have her sedated.
She claimed that after that, members of the San Francisco Fire Department tied her to a gurney and pushed her in the direction of an ambulance.
She described how one of the firefighters approached her as she was handcuffed and on the ground in front of the emergency car.
“I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing and I flinched and I yelled, ‘No!’ what if I’m allergic, you can’t just inject me,” she said.
According to McKnight, the paramedic didn’t inquire about her health and wouldn’t reveal what she was given as an injection.
She slurred her speech and claimed to be feeling lightheaded.
McKnight’s Fourth Amendment right to govern her own body was violated, Burris said, adding that administering an injection against McKnight’s will was frightening and unconstitutional.
She was transferred to a Kaiser Permanente hospital for observation, where she was handed a record indicating that she had been administered 5 milligrammes of the sedative Versed, which is frequently recommended to treat anxiety.
The Associated Press received a photo of the paperwork that McKnight supplied with them, which also said that she was in “a troubled emotional state after an altercation with SFPD.”
She wasn’t in emotional turmoil, according to McKnight.
According to the county’s emergency medical services procedures, San Francisco’s policy on dealing with people “with extreme agitation posing a danger to self or others” permits the use of midazolam, a short-acting sedative marketed under the trade name Versed.
The San Francisco Fire Department refused to identify when the county gave permission for the sedative to be used on detainees or how frequently it has been.
SFPD and SFFD were contacted by CBS Bay Area for comments regarding the charges, but we were informed that the agencies were unable to do so due to ongoing litigation and were instead to be directed to the San Francisco City Attorney’s office.
Jen Kwart, a representative for that office, stated in a statement: “The lawsuit has not yet been delivered to us.
When we are served, we will analyse it and react appropriately.”
When demonstrators calling for police reform brought up the August 2019 death of Black man Elijah McClain, who was stopped by police in suburban Denver, the use of sedatives by law enforcement received its first significant national attention.
When the paramedics arrived, they gave McClain more than 1.5 times the recommended amount of the potent tranquillizer ketamine due to an inaccurate weight assessment.
After experiencing a heart arrest, McClain, 23, was subsequently diagnosed as brain dead and removed from life support.
A 2020 investigation of ketamine use policies and incidents by The Associated Press revealed a dearth of police training, inconsistent medical standards, and nonexistent processes that have led to hospitalizations and fatalities.
According to the assessment, there are no federal guidelines on drug use for emergency medical workers or law enforcement.
It is unclear how frequently and for what reasons it is utilised during police encounters because state rules and reporting requirements differ.
In his more than four decades of practise, Burris claimed that he has never heard of authorities sedated a protester who was totally restrained.
The fact that she was shackled and strapped to a stretcher and so not a danger to herself or anybody else was the hardest part of administering the shot, according to him.