A federal judge has handed a win for Black Unity nearly six years after the events of July 29, 2020—otherwise known by many in the local activist community as “J29” or “Thurston”—and five years after the protest group’s lawsuit against the City of Springfield, Oregon and the Springfield Police Department was filed.
Oregon Federal District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled that Black Unity’s lawsuit will proceed to trial while, simultaneously, rebuking the defendants in the process.
On July 29, Black Unity led a protest in the Thurston neighborhood of Springfield that began at Jesse Maine Memorial Park, following the sighting of a skeleton hanging from a noose at a nearby home…