Dom Kennedy Files Lawsuit Against LAPD Over “Unconstitutional” Gun Laws
The venerable Dom Kennedy has taken a previous arrest by the Los Angeles Police Department and calls the current gun laws in the state “unconstitutional.”
The OPM founder and popular West Coast rapper-songwriter joined forces with another man, Garry Matthews, according to AllHipHop, to file the suit. In it, the suit states that the city’s licensing laws violate the Second and Fourth Amendments.
Both parties are requesting that their previous arrests be voided. Directed at the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, the pair also seek payments for legal fees and damages that followed due to their arrests. According to their lawyer, Jovan Blacknell, the case includes key facts that indicate that “there were no actions that the Plaintiffs or the other class members could have taken during the relevant time period that would have allowed them to carry a handgun for general self-defense in the City of Los Angeles. (1) the City’s Police Chief refuses to issue CCWs for the lawful Second Amendment purpose of general self-defense; and (2) the City’s Police Chief vigorously enforces laws criminalizing carrying a handgun outside the home without a CCW.”
Furthermore, the lawsuit challenges the city’s current gun control laws.
“The City’s and the Board’s and LAPD’s unconstitutional ‘no-issue’ CCW policies (concealed weapons permit) and other unconstitutional gun control laws, which were officially adopted and promulgated by the City’s policymakers, caused [Dom Kennedy and Matthews] and the other members of the Arrest Class and the Nonresident Class to be arrested and detained merely for the permissible Second Amendment conduct of carrying a handgun for general self-defense outside the home or place of business.”
Kennedy and Matthews’ suit against the LAPD also calls for the arrest and prosecution records of other citizens impacted by the city’s gun laws to be sealed.